I'm Yours
by Tsume Yuki
Summary: L'd never planned on anyone ever getting close to him, the vast majority went out of their way to avoid him. But she just wouldn't leave him alone, no matter how many doors he slammed in her face. LxOC
1. Completely Unreasonable

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 1  
****Completely Unreasonable**

**October 5th 1997**

_Faith: __Fourteen years and ten months (December 23__rd__1982)_

_L: __Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31__st__1982)_

_Mello:__Four years and ten months (December 13__th__1992)_

_N__ear: Three years and two months (August 24__th__ 1994)_

* * *

The wind was silent as the sun began to breech the horizon, a low, glowing orb of energy. It cast grand shadows across the driveway, tree limbs printed out onto the undisturbed gravel, pattern only broken by the sleek black limo that was slowly sliding up towards the building. It appears that Elliot has returned. Leaning forwards ever so slightly in order to peek out the window, I readjusted the albino toddler resting against my hip. His curls of white hair had started to grow out at a rather rapid pace as of present, and were now hanging in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision, much to my annoyance. It was that much harder to get the boy to respond if he couldn't see past the curls covering his face. Sometimes, I honestly did question Mr Wammy, bringing in this child. He was just so strange, even at the age of three he had yet to talk, I had never seen him walk once either, somehow he always managed to get someone to pick him up, or he'd just remain seated, stubbornly refusing to move. The only time I'd ever seen him crawl was when it came to retrieving his toys from Mello.  
And yet, there were moments when he had bouts of pure genius, such as finishing the blank picture puzzle that'd been left out in the foyer without a second of hesitation.

"Mrs Lyons?"  
Turning my attention away from the window, I let my eyes slide over to the girl addressing me. A bright smile accompanying bright chocolate eyes took up the vast majority of the teen's face, soft cocoa locks brushing in front of her shoulders as Faith smiled up at me. Snapping to attention, the white haired tot instantly reached out with demanding, grabby hands, leaning towards the girl and smiling as he did so.

"Do you mind Mrs Lyons?"  
The pale faced child was giving me no choice in the matter, latching onto Faith's hand the second it came within range and refusing the let go.

"He's all your love. Heaven only knows how you've managed to win him over with just a weeks work. I still haven't quite managed it," I laughed a little on the end, smiling good naturedly before carefully juggling the small boy into her arms. Faith had arrived six days ago, a shy, nervous wreck. She'd lacked self confidence and had practically jumped out of her skin whenever someone had talked to her. It wasn't until Mello had all but snatched her up once her cooking skills had come to light that she'd found her place. She was now well respected by all most everyone, friends with the vast majority and the older sibling to all the younger children. She made herself approachable; she wore no make-up, and her hair was never done up like that of the average teen's, instead it was either left loose or tied back in a simple pony-tail. But what she lacked in physical appearance, she made up for with a charming personality and the strange gift of love. As soon as you opened up to her, that was it, you were friends with her.

"Who is that?"  
Pulled from my thoughts, I turned, eyes instantly falling onto Faith's form. She was leaning against the window frame, Near resting neatly on her hip and away from the glass opening, too entertained with the girls hair to notice.

"That would be Elliot. He's been away to work on some cases with Scotland yard, he's top of the class as they say dear."  
Faith nodded slightly, bronze coloured eyes flickered back down to the driveway as she watched the mop of black hair slowly make his way inside.

"May I count on you to get Mello to bed tonight dear?"

Looking up with a huge smile on her face, Faith grinned, head bobbing up and down in agreement with the request. "Of course Mrs Lyons. I'll do my best!"

* * *

As Mrs Lyons made her way to the corridor, more than likey to round up the rest of the children running through the halls, I carefully adjusted my hold on Near till he was in a frontal piggy back, dark eyes only just managing to peek out from under his white fringe. They narrowed slightly before a hand, rounded with puppy fat, reached out and attached itself to a handful of my hair. Holding it as delicately as a three year old genius child could, the albino began twirling it around his index finger, frowning as he did so.

"Let's go find Mello then," I mused, letting a cheerful whistle slip through my lips as I skipped down the halls. From where he was curled up against my side, Near let out a whine of protest, gathering up another clump of my hair before attempting to steer me off to the side and most certainly away from Mello's room.

"No Near, we need to put Mello to bed. The you can get a bath and once that's over and done with you can sleep too."  
Sticking his tongue out between his lips, Near blew the biggest of raspberries before clutching to my shoulder, burying his face into the crook of my neck and refusing to resurface no matter what I attempted to coax him out with. With a sigh, I rounded the corner before gently kicking Mello's down open, least he be behind it.

"Ah! Faith!"

"Bed time Mello."  
The spunky blond looked up, eyes narrowed and a frown on his face. Chomping down on his lip, the five year old made a mad dash forwards, sliding out the doorway between my legs and taking off down the hallway.

"Catch me if you can!"  
Scowling, especially as Near smiled at the scene, I took off after him, screaming his name as I went.

* * *

"How was your flight?"  
Looking up from underneath the mess of hair that covered his forehead, L blinked owlishly at Mrs Lyons, a frown marring his face.

"It was purely a waste of time and valuable resources. Not to mention that the seating is not only uncomfortable but the air hostesses were being completely unreasonable." Rising from the armchair where he'd been resting, L strolled casually over, holding out an expecting hand. It was rather obvious from Mrs Lyons face that she wasn't happy about the blatant disrespect he showed, but as the boys guardian, I'd long since grown used to his strange ways. Offering up the bag that held his laptop, the three of us paused momentarily in our discussions as a screaming wild child came racing down the stairs, mouth wide open in a yell of blatant disregard to the other possibly sleeping residents. Mrs Lyons only looked on his shock, unable to comprehend that whilst she had just spent a moment judging L, one of her young charges was running a mock right in front of her. Dashing off to the left and veering down a corridor, Mello disappeared from sight, but not from mind.  
L shot Mrs Lyons a look that was clearly condescending, not even blinking in his blatant stare. More footsteps echoed across the marble staircase and in a blur of red material, the newest edition to our family came skidding to a halt, adjusting her grip on the albino toddler as she did so.  
Faith stared down at the three of us gathered in the foyer, her dark brown eyes flicking from one face to another before offering up a nervous, somewhat guilty grin. Her olive toned skin -a clear sign of her Italian background- glowed under the light, waves of chocolate brown hair falling behind her shoulders, excluding the strand Near was currently entertaining himself with. Carefully flowing down the stairs, the teen offered up another smile at the three of us, looking at L in particular. It wasn't hard to see that the raven was frowning at the girl, making a meal out of his thumbnail whilst narrowing his eyes.

"Hi," Faith murmured, Italian accent heavy in her surprisingly well versed English, "my name's Faith." She'd extended the arm that wasn't supporting Near, digits pointing towards the teen detective and I sighed with regret, almost knowing what was coming next.  
L took one look at the hand that'd been offered up to him, disgust marring his features at the very idea of physical contact. Then he breezed right past her, not even acknowledging her existence.

* * *

I froze, staring at the empty space that the boy, Elliot, had just occupied, my hand still extended and grin still on my face, regardless of the fact that my eyes were probably showing the dejected feeling that crash-landed in my stomach. Before I could manage a word, Mr Wammy took my hand, shaking it slightly.

"My apologies for Elliot, he has a little issues with human interaction... He's not the most social of people."  
I nodded wearily, letting the smile slip from my face as I did so. Mr Wammy was an elderly man, with hair that shared the off-shade white of paper. His eyes were hidden behind half moon glasses, and coupled with the light, I couldn't quite tell the colour of the irises.

"Faith love, were you by any chance in pursuit of Mello?"  
Snapping to attention, I turned to Mrs Lyons, nodding my head as I did so. She pointed one worn finger off in the direction of the kitchen, and with renewed vigour, I almost took off after the blond brat. Yet, something made my feet remain where they were.

"Mr Wammy... Is there any way I can try and win Elliot over? Say, does he like eating anything?"  
The elderly gentleman smiled, running a hand across his brow before carefully lifting up the bags at his feet. Mrs Lyons made to help, collecting the suitcases that were situated by the door.

"Sugar dear. Desserts, anything sweet."

With a smile, I took a bow -not low enough to topple Near though- before taking off after the little blond tearaway."Thanks!"

.

We managed to corner him in the kitchen. I only include Near in this because the tot had managed to spot the rapscallion ransacking the fridge, chocolate bar hanging from his mouth in the most adorably cute way.

"Come Mello, bedtime."

"And if I don't want to go?"  
Frowning, I took a quick look at the cupboards, more specifically, the one with the ingredients for chocolate cake.

"If I were to say there's a double layer chocolate cake in it for you." Now that had the blond pausing, biting on his lip and savouring the taste of it.

"Make it a triple and I'll go to bed on time for the next three days." Offering his hand out to confirm the deal, I smiled before shaking, pulling Mello up onto my hip as I did so.

"Okay then, let's roll."  
He grinned, trying to subtly -yet it was anything but- poke Near in the side until I shuffled the two boys out of reach of one another.

"None of that, or you'll find some healthy pieces of orange in that cake."

"I'll be good."

* * *

Thumb pressed up against my lip, I stared at the computer monitor before me, light background aglow in the dark room I currently occupied. Faith was shown on screen, dancing around in the kitchen, the stove and hob being used to its full capacity. It was a well known fact amongst the residents of Wammy's House that Faith could cook. She could cook exceedingly well if the rumours and Mello's obsessive fondness of her were anything to go by. There were very few in Wammy's that would go for such trivial pursuits of knowledge, but it was perhaps one of the most celebrated amongst the orphans whom had only been use to the mediocre cooking of a over-glorified maid. Watching as she threw more circular shaped cakes into the oven, I briefly allowed my mouth to salivate ever so slightly, praying to whatever deity out there that the brunette would be sharing with every orphan under this roof. If not for my blatant disregard of her earlier this morning, then I might have even found my way down to the kitchen by now. Instead, I flicked open the the other tab, reviewing all the cases that'd been offered up for my consideration, denying and accepting the relevant ones before chewing on the edge of my thumb nail. A cake would be welcomed right now, however, there were cases to solve which were of slightly greater importance.

A short chain of knocks brought my attention over to the door, and having carefully placed the laptop down and inspected the tea to make sure it wouldn't be cooling anytime soon, I made my way over, carefully pulling it open. It'd been a while since I'd checked the security cameras as now Faith was stood before me, clad in a men's shirt thrice her size with a sloppily written, meaningless slogan across it. There was an 82.5% that she was wearing only a pair of panties under it, a 17.4% chance she was wearing shorts, and the last 0.1% chance was that she wasn't wearing anything at all. Though the latter result was dropping quickly as she seemed very comfortable stood in male company.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot," her voice broke the awkward silence that'd descended, holding out a neatly wrapped pink box with both her hands. "And I was thinking that-"  
I didn't give her time to the finish, instead snatching the box away and slamming the door shut.

"HEY!"  
Ignoring the cry of annoyance, I flipped off the lid once the stupidly placed ribbon was gone, pawing around in the box before lifting up one of the occupants. Sitting alongside a handful of sugar dusted strawberries were what appeared to be some form of cookie shaped pastry. After a quick google search, I was able to identity them as strawberry macarons; a pastry with European origins and one of which I'd never tried. They were quite nice too, a very well prepared peace offering. If they'd been given to anyone else it would be a good conclusion the two would have ended up friends. However, such mundane attachments have no meaning to me. Taking another bite of the macarons, a small smile found it's way to my face, regardless.  
Annoying as she was, the girl could make a good dessert.

* * *

Brushing down the front of my shirt and sucking in a deep breath, I marched up to the final door on the corridor, pouting ever so slightly before staring down at the box it my hands. It was a soft pink card with darker pink ribbon wrapped around it, a perfect match to the sweets inside. Rapping my fist against the door, I watched as it was slowly pulled back, dark eyes peeking out from an even darker room. Hell, if it wasn't for his pale skin, I doubted I could have spotted Elliot at all.  
He stared back at me from under his dark mop of hair, almost as if he hadn't breezed past me without acknowledging my existence previously. Forcing a half-hearted smile onto my face, I rocked back, offering up the present.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot," I murmured, watching as he stared back, not even looking at the box as he took it from my grasp, "and I was thinking that- HEY!"  
The door had been slammed shut brutally in my face, and from the sound of the bolt noise locked. After smashing my fists against the door for a good minute, I scowled, crossing my arms and thrusting my slipper clad foot at the door, even though it would surly do no damage against the solid oak.

"Fine, I don't want to be friends with you anyway you jerk! Your loss!" Storming off down the hallways to my own room, I passed by Mr Wammy, who just looked at my tantrum in shock.  
I didn't offer an explanation.

* * *

Whoever keeps his door locked all the time longs for it to be broken down.  
-Chinese Proverb

* * *

**Wow, it's been such a long time since I wrote Death Note. I really long time.  
Regardless, this is a rewrite of a previous story which is still up on my account here, mainly because I have found a different direction to take with it that I can't do without a rewrite. **

**The chapter's will vary in length but I will be roughly aiming for 3000, mainly because I'm very lazy. Forgive me. **

**Thank you very much for reading, and it'd mean a great deal if you were to review, add to communities ect.**

**Tsume**

**xxx**


	2. Social Standing

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 2  
****Social Standing**

**October 6th 1997**

_Faith: __Fourteen years and ten months (December 23__rd__1982)_

_L: __Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31__st__1982)_

_Mello:__Four years and ten months (December 13__th__1992)_

_N__ear: Three years and two months (August 24__th__ 1994)_

* * *

It was a slow morning. As it was a Monday, almost all the children were in class. However, there was nothing for me to study, seeing as my area of expertise -cooking- was more of a practical element. I already knew the vast majority of the theory, had completed the A level qualification and the equivalent in Italian. Now it was really just a case of trying out recipe after recipe. Rolling over and savouring the warmth the thick duvet offered, a scowl crossed my face at the thought of having to leave the warm comforts of my bed. The image of Elliot's pasty face was catapulted into my mind and with a sigh, I slowly forced my body into a sitting position, looking around my room as I did so. It was pretty enough, painted a light, vintage pink and the vast majority of the furniture was cast iron white, the sturdy yet delicate looking kind. But what made the room for me was the window seat that was facing down over the back of the orphanage, allowing me to see out into the vast countryside that surrounded our home.  
Crawling out from under the warm comfort of the covers, I scuttled across the floor, making my way over to the dresser before ripping a set of matching underwear from it. A pair of patterned white tights, a short winter themed skirt and long sleeve red top followed, collected in my arms until I found the strength to head for the door. The floor was cold, a sure sign that one of the children on the western wing had played with the boiler, ruining the heating for the children on the eastern wing, myself included. It wouldn't be long till the positions were switched, it was a rather friendly competition that had several children dreading getting out of bed in the morning should the floor be freezing cold.

Having made my way to one of the six bathrooms, I bolted the door shut before leaping into the shower, welcoming the seemingly scorching hot water. Balling my fists up and letting the water run over my hair, I stared determinedly at the door.

"I am going to win Elliot over. Without a doubt."  
After a quick wash, throwing on my clothes and tying my hair up, I ran back to my room, snatched up my personal recipe book before taking off to the kitchen. If he really was as sweet obsessed as what Mr Wammy had implied, he would only be able to ignore the smell for so long.

* * *

It was around eleven o'clock in the morning that L got the first whiff of the scent lingering in the air. I watched over the top of my half moon glasses as he paused in his typing, sampling the air in such a way he resembled some small mammal -possibly a rodent-, eyes wide and lips pursed as the clogs in his brain spun rapidly. Yet he returned back to work, ignoring it. It was about half an hour later that he caught himself drooling, having been out of cake of his own for the past ten minutes. I'd sat by at the back of the office, flicking through the IQ scores of all the children that'd recently come into the orphanages under my finical protection over the past week, though I had occasionally been observed the teen out the corner of my eye. The soft click of the mouse alerted me to the fact he was most certainly not typing anymore, and was either looking through scans of evidence, or quite possibly, observing the situation in the kitchen. And judging by the sugar lust that quickly overtook his eyes, it was rather obvious as to which camera he was looking at. With mild interest, I too switched the Wammy house surveillance, ignoring the ones of the classrooms and focusing on the hallway outside of the room we currently occupied.

"I shall return in a moment Watari," L murmured, already halfway out the door. An amused chuckled escaped my lips, tracking the raven haired teen on screen as he flew through the corridors, posture still as slouched and incorrect as the first day Mrs Lyons had seen him. Every so often he would inhale, taking in a great sniff of the sweet scent that'd reached my office and a pleasant smile would cross his face.  
Finally, L came to the kitchen door, pausing and cautiously peeking around the edges of the wooden frame. As expected, Faith was stood up to the stove, pulling some form of cake from with the oven, steam rising rapidly over the sponge formation. Taking a ladle from the pan on the stove, she poured a great helping of melted chocolate over the top, placing the cake onto a pedestal on the center island which was already overrun with a multitude of desserts. As she turned back, reaching in for more recently cooked desserts, L snuck into the room, carefully not to make a single sound as he ducked behind the center island, body crouched low into his preferred posture, head angled upwards so that he could only just see the cake that was hanging over the side of the worktop. However, before he could make a reach for it, the sweet was airlifted away, replaced with the bowl of freshly baked Italian cookies. Hot cookies.  
What came next was, clearly, inevitable.

* * *

Slamming the spoon onto the pasty white hand that'd appeared, I frowned as Elliot's head slowly lifted up from it's shelter behind the counter, guilty smile plastered across his face.

"Elliot," I murmured, in what I'd hoped to be some form of annoyance, however the pleasant smile on my face must have given me away. He stood, eyes level with my own in his slouched posture as his eyes slowly began to trail over the spread before us. First he took in the Pizzelle he'd been so close to snatching away before those dark eyes slowly began to make their way over every single cake, cookie and flan on offer. Balancing the mixing bowl against my hip, I plucked up a chiacchiere with my free hand, waving it under his nose and smirking when he snatched it away, devouring it in a manner that could be considered unpleasant if you'd never had the misfortune of witnessing Mello's eating habits.

"Good morning to you too," I murmured, returning to the cake mixture and watching as the teen's eyes once again swept over the table. "The ladyfinger's on the pink plate are ready to eat. I mean, I assume you came for something to eat right?" Said items were covered in strawberry icing, and without hesitation Elliot plucked them up, inspecting one before that too was lost to his appetite.

"Delicious," he murmured, plucking up one of the too hot Pizzelle before shovelling that too into his mouth.  
Turning back to the stove to hide my blush at the compliment, I began pouring the mixture into the free cake tin, smiling to myself as I did so.

"Thank you, if you want, I could make you...a cake." I stared at the door which had just bounced against the frame and was now on the return swing, the only sign -aside from the missing sweets- that Elliot had even been here. Scowling, I forced myself to release the spoon I was holding before bending it back into its original shape, growling under my breath as I did so. That, that asshole. He just walked off! He never even let me finish my sentence!  
Picking up the giant strawberry tart that'd been sat cooling on the worktop, I stormed out of the room, following the sugary footprints Elliot had left behind.

* * *

L had returned, seating himself on the floor and occasionally flicking back to the biscuits beside him. I had tried one of them when he'd entered the room, yet as good as they were I highly doubted that I'd be getting another one with the way L was inhaling them. Suddenly, the door burst open, and the both of us turned to look at the intruder. For a second, Faith was stood there, holding what appeared to be a giant strawberry tart. The next second, she was no longer holding it, and L was suddenly spread out across the floor, with what looked suspiciously like the missing in action dessert covering his entire face. The brunette in question stormed over, wiping her hands down on the apron she was donning before plucking up what little remained of L's stolen desserts and walking out of the room without a word, not even sparing the teenaged detective a glance as she went. The two of us sat in silence for the briefest of moments; what had most certainly been Faith's Jam tart slowly slipping from L's face before landing in his lap, the raven having sat up at some point during Faith's dramatic exit.

"Correct me if I'm mistaken Watari," L murmured, raising his hands and wiping the strawberry jam from his eyelids, letting them slowly flutter open as he did so, "but I'm quite sure I just got a larger than the norm strawberry flavoured jam tart thrown at my face with intent."  
I nodded, watching as he sucked the jam from the tips of his fingers, frowning as he did so.

"I do believe that just happened L. By any chance did you say anything that could have offended Miss Faith in anyway?"

L blinked owlishly, proceeding to lick his lips and the skin around them; he would have been smiling had the substance not ruined his white shirt. "I simply acted the same way I would have had you been the one cooking."

"Ah. That could be the problem."  
Looking up in confusion, L cocked his head to a side, as if asking just what he had done wrong.

"You see L, whereas I recognise you as the worlds greatest detective and respect the fact your intelligence is greater than mine, I'm afraid Faith doesn't recognise you as L, instead she see you as Elliot, whom is merely in no shape or form above herself. She won't bend to your authority in any way, as she doesn't recognise you as a figure of authority. Hence, when you show disrespect she will, well, return the favour. Society would expect two people of equal standing to apologies to one another in such instances as these."  
The young raven haired boy nodded, thumb running across his lip and collecting what little sugar remained there.

"I see.. It appears I shall have to remedy this then." A proud smile filtered across my face as L once again got to his feet, turning and heading for the door all the while sucking on his thumb as he went.

* * *

Placing the white chocolate mousse and strawberry tart onto of the counter, I leaned back against the wall, wiping the sweat from my brow as I did so. That was going to have to replace the dessert that been wasted as a projectile against Elliot, I could only pray that none of the children asked for one, because they wouldn't get one. In the adjacent kitchen, Mrs Lyons was cooked up the main course, beady eyes occasionally flickering over to my spread and shaking her head in mock disbelief. It'd been a pleasant surprise to find out when had the vast majority of ingredients under one roof, which had allowed me to transform one kitchen into what looked more like a high class bakery. Though I still had a fair bit to go in the presentation of my desserts, the children didn't seem to mind, and Linda had promised to add her artistic vision to my efforts should I bake her the required chocolate whirls; the ones that were currently occupying the green bowl on the side.  
Eyes flickering up as the door opened, a frown marred my face at the sight of Elliot, nails scraping along the worktop before they came to rest on the adjacent arm, folded with a stern look accompanying the move on my face. The raven just dug his hands into his pockets, lazily scratching at one bare foot with the other.

"I have been told that I have not acted correctly in regards to the social standing you hold me in. So I have come to rectify the problem."  
After a moment of translating the rather complex words into English, I relaxed from my fixed posture, plucking up a bag of home-made butterfingers and offering them out to him. Elliot smiled, accepting the package before stuffing one into his mouth.

"Now that I have been informed that you see the both of us to share the same social status, I'm afraid to tell you that you are in actual fact, below me."

"What?" I stared in complete and utter disbelief, all ideas of this boy actually apologising to me flying out the window.

"Would it be better if I said it in Italian?"  
Before I could even answer, he switched to my native tongue with practice ease as if he'd been born and raised in the country.

"You Faith-san, are below me when it comes to a multitude of things, ranging from intelligence to importance in this household. Whilst the orphans may hold in high regard, this does not make you greater, or even with myself. I am your superior. I hope I cleared this up... Thank you for the butterfingers."  
As the teen swept from the room, I could only stand there, jaw unhinged and hand still out from where he'd taken the butterfingers. It wasn't until the rest of the orphans joined me that I registered what'd just happened.

The fork I'd been stabbing my dessert with wouldn't be the same with the way I'd bent it's body now.

* * *

Avoid what will require an apology.  
-Arabic Proverb

* * *

**Sorry this took so long, and sorry it's a bit on the short side, but what the hell, I had no more to add to it.  
I also have another Death Note Story called 'Bullseye' if you want to check that out.**

**_Are Pyre, Tame, Cathy, and Kara going to be in this one?_  
Yes, they'll return, it saves me having to make more OC's, so yeah. Hope that's what you wanted.**

**And yeah, I made L a bit more arsey in this, because well, he is? That's my excuse regardless. **

**Thank you for the reviews, please drop another one?**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	3. Residential Kidnapper

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 3  
****Residential Kidnapper**

**October 7th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Kara: Ten years and four months (May 18th 1987)_

_Cathy: Fifteen years and nine months (Janurary 2nd 1982)_

* * *

Seated by the pool that resided in the basement of Wammy's house, I dipped a toe into the water, half-heartedly swirling it around and frowning to myself as I did so.

"Faith!" I looked up, blinking as Cathy swam over. Her hair was a bright, fiery ginger that fell around her face in frizzy waves, glass blue eyes staring back at me and a huge smile stretched across her lips. Her home-made, damningly fabulous cut out swimsuit shown under the water, an intriguing green that'd lit up the catwalk a week prior.

"What's up with the sad face?"  
I shrugged, letting my eyes drift over to where Near was nestled in an inflatable silver ring, dark eyes tracking Mello's every movement in the shallow end where Kara was attempting to teach the blond to swim.

"Nothing major, just slowly coming to the realization that not everyone can like you. Or that you can like everyone."  
She frowned, leaning back till she was floating belly up, hair fanning out around her until it looked like someone had ripped the sun from the sky and placed it behind her.

"Elliot huh? He's like it with everyone... Though I can't say anyone has really gone out of their way to talk to him... Most of the time he's just hidden away in his room." Flipping back in a perfectly executed roll, Cathy placed both her arms on the side of the pool, resting her head in the crook of her elbow and smiling up at me.

"We're a bunch of socially awkward kids.. Well, most of us are. You've managed to break everyone else out of their shells, just don't give up."

Smiling back, I slowly lowered myself into the pool, nodding to her as I did so. "You know what, I won't... Mello! Don't you dare flip Near!"

* * *

There was a break in the almost constant sound of typing and I looked up from behind my the screen of my laptop. For the second time since my return to the house, there was someone knocking on my door. Flicking onto the security camera footage, a frown slowly began to mar my lips at the sight of Faith stood up to the door, hand slowly lowering from where it'd just pounded against the wood. Beside her stood Kara, a ten year old martial artist that Watari had brought to the house a few years ago.

"Elliot! Come on out, you're going to socialize whether you like it or not!" She raised a fist threateningly, shaking it about in-front of herself. If it wasn't for the fact the boy she was currently stood next to was chuckling, the gesture would have been more intimidating. Not by much, but it could have been.

"Answer me!"  
With a light roll of my eyes at the incompetence of the girl, I turned back to the computer and resumed typing. After a few seconds passed by, the sound of Faith's fading footsteps led to the conclusion she'd fled the scene, abandoning her plight. Smirking, I allowed myself to get lost in the cases, watching as the killer behind the Bethel Church murders was thrown into the back of a prison van. The same accomplished feeling settled into the space behind my abdomen and flicking to the next case, I forced all thoughts of the newest orphan from my mind.

It didn't feel like more than a minute since I'd looked up at my room last, but clearly more time had passed than I realised. One huge clue was the fact my door was now missing. I hadn't even heard it unlock, but under closer inspection, it appeared the hinges were attached to the door frame, but no longer held the door in place.  
Kara was stood against the wall out in the hallway, casually swinging a screwdriver around before gently tapping a door -my door- the was leaning against the wall beside him.

"Hello Elliot!" Faith walked into the room, though she didn't hold the air of a person who'd outmanoeuvred their enemy. No, instead the look she wore upon her face could be compared to the beyond smug face Mello had when he'd still gotten chocolate despite the six month ban Roger had once tried to inflict upon him. It was the smug look of somebody that'd outwitted their 'superior', the very word I'd thrown in her face but a day ago.

"Fancy running into you!" She grinned, and didn't seem put off by the fact I was most certainly not amused by her current behaviour. Her smile didn't slip in the slightest, instead it only seemed to grow, her cheeks curving outwards in an attempt to keep the emotion on her face.

"We simply must catch up." She caught hold of the quilt I'd been resting on, pulling that -and consequently me- from the bed with little effort on her part. My laptop clattered to the floor, not broken but most certainly out of reach as Faith continued to pull me to the hallway. Not even allowed to gather my bearings, Kara caught the two edges of the blankets that remained, quickly lifting them up and drawing them together with Faith's share until I was trapped in a make-shift net. Though it would be more than possible to escape, I sat back instead, content to let them struggle a bit before branding all their attempts failure.  
Curled up within the bundle of material, I stared at the dark cream that the lack of lighting created, mentally running through ways of reinforcing my door so that this incident would not become a repeated event.

* * *

Casually dumping the blanket bundle onto the center of one of the many playroom, I stepped back and watched as the quilt dropped to the floor with a soft 'flump'. It was but a mere moment later that a spiky black head of hair broke through the confinements, turning this way and that before the coal eyes that came with it rested upon me.

"That, Faith-san, was a form of kidnapping that I will most certainly be reporting to Roger."  
Snorting, I fell back into a clumsy squat, plucking up the plate beside me and offering it up. Strawberry cake, fresh from it's sixteen hour confinement in the fridge, resting upon the white porcelain, instantly capturing Elliot's gaze.

"Come on Elliot, it's cake. How can you not like cake?"  
He frowned but made his way over, body held close to the ground and limbs moving in a frenzy of erratic twists and jolts until he was but three feet away.

"I do like cake, however I will still be reporting your crimes."  
Chuckling, even though I knew he most certainly wasn't joking, I cut another slice of cake for myself, wearily eyeing Elliot's oddly positioned body. He was crouched forwards, leg's drawn up to his chest and shoulders slumped forwards to make their way around his scrawny limbs so that his arms may reach the cake placed before him. A smiled tugged at my lips as he plucked the fork up, holding the utensil like it was poisoned but stabbing at the dessert regardless.

"Would you like tea? I've got tea," I murmured, pouring the hot water into my own cup and watching as the raven haired teen nodded absent-mindedly.

"Tea would be good," he murmured, inhaling the strawberry that'd been balancing upon his fork. Not a second after I'd finished, seventeen sugar cubes began bombing the hot water, dropping into the tea with only a splash indicating they'd ever existed. Elliot plucked up the cup between with pointer finger and thumb, taking a sip whilst stabbing at the cake with the fork in his other hand. Casually, I dropped two of the remaining cubes into my own tea, cupping the teacup with both hands and smiling at the warmth it gave off.

"If you came out more often, you'd know that there's always a cake or two put out at about three o'clock for a mid-day snack."  
The raven nodded in a distinctly distracted fashion, long fingers drumming against the handle of the fork.

"Something on your mind?"  
He snorted, rolling his black eyes in a typically Elliot fashion, the kind that insinuated that I was of lower levels of intelligence.

"Yes actually, I was working on a case before you so rudely interrupted."

* * *

Watching as Faith smiled around her teacup, I helped myself to a second, rather generous slice of strawberry cake as Wammy's residential kidnapper mused silently over her tea.

"So, that case you were working on just now, how's it going?" She looked up from under her eyelashes; obviously she wasn't attempting to pry into the case, just rid the room of the silence that'd fallen upon it.  
Not about to tell her that I had already completed the 'Bethel Church murders' case -one which would be reported L had completed tomorrow- I settled for a simple shrug, watching as her nose crumpled up at the gesture.

"Okay then... What about you then? I don't know anything about you, aside from the fact you like sweets and hate people." A light grin spread across her face, settling the now empty teacup down upon the wooden table before she slowly began to pour another helping of tea.

"It's of no consequence to you if you were to learn anything substantial about my personality and personal preferences," I mused, reaching over to the remaining cake and taking a third piece. Faith's brown eyes tracked my movements across the table, cool and analytical.

"It may not be important information to you, but I might be able to use just the silliest piece of information. You like strawberries," she smiled as she spoke, looking up triumphantly and wiggling her eyebrows as she did so. A scar rested beneath the hairs of one, creating a thin line of hairless skin along the center of her eyebrow from start to finish. Some substantial injure from childhood perhaps. "You've been taken the slices with the most strawberries upon them, even if you've been doing so unconsciously." She shuffled back in her chair before lifting up a neatly wrapped box, pushing it forwards across the wooden surface of the table and thus, putting it within reaching distance of myself. "I mean now that I know that, I can make things with strawberries on for you, because you'll appreciate them more. Like what's in that box."  
Thoroughly curious, I shovelled the last of the strawberry cake into my mouth, unwrapping the box with my free hand. Unexpectedly, there was a strawberry flavoured dessert, namely classic strawberry pie.

"I made two though, just encase you didn't like strawberries," Faith murmured, producing an orange flavoured shortcake from beside her.

"I'll take that one too."

* * *

Even though it'd only been five minutes of his time, it was rather obvious Elliot didn't appreciate being kidnapped and forced to sit through conversation, regardless of how much cake and tea I buttered him up with. So I'd told him I was off to bake with Mello, and god, I'd never seen him move as fast as he did exiting that room. Regardless, he'd sat through it, so maybe it was a step in the right direction. This was how I now found myself stood outside the lecture room, waiting for Mello's class to finish up. I'd promised him the triple chocolate cake, but then an even sweeter idea had hit me. Since Near was off somewhere getting an official IQ test with Mr Wammy, this left the day free for the both of us to get some serious cooking done.  
As children came filtering out the door, I tapped the little blonde on the shoulder before scooping him up, smirking as he whined in protest as the babying.

"So if I'm babying you, then you won't want to join in with creating the greatest chocolate cake to ever grace Wammy's then?"  
Bright blue eyes shot up to look me in the eyes and I grinned.

"That's right, chocolate time Mello."  
He whooped in enthusiasm, latching onto me as he did so.

"I was thinking we could shape it, like make a monument out of it?"

"Yeah, let's do the Leaning Tower of Pisa!"

"Okay northerner," I murmured, switching to Italian and watching as Mello's face lit up, instantly switching to his native tongue.

"You're Italian too? That's so awesome! You can be my sister! Faith-sorella!"  
Giggling lightly, I rubbed the top of Mello's head, plopping him against my hip as I did so.

"Okay fratellino."

* * *

Watching for the security camera's as Mello and Faith struggled to align the fourteenth and final cake upon the tower they'd created so far, I shifted against the mattress, frowning as I did so. Cases were slow at the moment, well, interesting cases as least. I'd been warming up by pointing the police in the right direction for some of the more simple cases they'd been struggling with. Yet, the rapidly approaching completion of the current cake creation located in the kitchen had captured my attention. Judging by the shape and the two's Italian backgrounds, it looked as if it was suppose to represent the Leaning Tower of Pisa; there were a few architectural flaws however. Ah, Faith plans to cut the pillars and windows in.  
That cake will most certainly be a master piece.

As the little blonde child realized he had homework to be doing, and they had in fact spent almost the entire night on the cake, he raced off upstairs, proclaiming he'd be getting up at some ungodly hour of the morning to help finish the cake off. The chef snatched up a sheet of paper, scribbling something down onto it's surface in a bright red marker pen. Readjusting the camera angle as the brunette left the room, a sigh escaped my lips.

'_Elliot, don't you dare touch this till we finish, and you might get a slice or two._'

* * *

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way  
-Unknown

* * *

**Once again, apologies on the time it took. These chapters will get longer, I promise it!**

**After this chapter, I'll be changing to 3rd person, because I can no longer write 1st up to my current standard. Darn.**

**_Will the cage be making a reappearance in this series?_  
But of course, however could I leave it out? Though it shall probably be in omakes. **

**Thank you for the reviews, please drop another one?**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	4. Friendly Acquaintances

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 4  
****Friendly Acquaintances**

**October 8th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Kara: Ten years and four months (May 18th 1987)_

_Beyond; Fifteen years and six months (March 21st 1982)_

_Cathy: Fifteen years and nine months (Janurary 2nd 1982)_

_Daze; Sixteen and one month (September 6th 1981)_

* * *

Once Faith had finished up on the decoration of the cake, she stood back, looking up at the grand example of architectural genius. Linda had drawn up the design, and she'd followed it through to the end, and now there was a rather magnificent redesign of the tower. The paper warning however, had not been enough of a deterrent for the dessert desperado. She wouldn't have noticed the thieving of her cake had it not been for the fact she was placing extra chocolate between the layers. Upon lifting the top layer away from the cake, it became apparent that Elliot had simply been unable to help himself, having cut cake from the second to top slice and leaving it hollow, but enough left to support the final topping. Unable to suppress the amused snort upon the image of Elliot dressed as a cat burglar -or cake burglar as the case called for- Faith dusted down her apron before hanging the material from the nearby hook.  
Near's IQ results had arrived along with the albino's return, and proclaimed him to be the smartest orphan Wammy's had taken in so far; below Elliot that was. Which as one could guess, had sent Mello into the foulest of moods that morning. As such, the little white haired genius had been required to start attending the lower grade lectures, even if he did just sit there and play about with his robots. It was driving Mello -and the other students, but most noticeably Mello- nuts. Sighing, the Italian leapt over to the door frame, pulling the entrance closed and praying to god she could find Elliot before he found the cake.

.

Dashing up the grand stair case, Faith paused at the figure stood at the very top.

"Elliot! How dare you take some of that cake!"  
He paused, head and upper body jolting back in shock.  
Jogging quickly up the stairs, Faith came to a halt as she inspected the teen before her. Whilst he most certainly did have the raven black hair, slouched figure and facial features, this was not her cake loving thief. Sharp black eyes stared back at her, eerily familiar with the dark bags that hung beneath, however, not as pronounced as she was used to witnessing. So either Elliot had gotten some much needed sleep, or-

"You're not Elliot are you?"  
He gave a short, barking laugh before straightening his back slightly, emphasizing the four inches he towered over her.

"No, I can't say I am," he grinned down at her before bowing slightly, laughing as he did so. "It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Faith, I am Beyond." Well, he was certainly a lot more social that Elliot.  
Smiling back, the brunette caught the corners of her long shirt, pulling it outwards in a curtsey whilst bending at the knees.

"And it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Beyond. Do tell, why have I not seen you before today."  
The raven laughed again, offering up his arm and smiling when the brunette slipped her own through the ring created. Tucking the limb close to his body, which was warm, warm, warm, Beyond smiled down at Faith with barely hidden glee.

"Myself and Alternate never really surface from our rooms unless we need to stock up on food; and I have heard things. One thing, I've heard you can cook, and quite well?"  
A blush dusted her cheeks, looking up at the taller male before nodding along.

"Yes, I suppose I can cook..."

"Well then, would you please consider making some form of jam dessert?" This time, he offered up a smile that showed perfectly aligned teeth.

"I guess, if you come down to the kitchen, you can show me what you want."

* * *

Stood once again in the kitchen, mixing up the dough required for the strawberry-jam cakes, Faith let her eyes drift upwards to look at Beyond. He was currently sat atop the center counter within the kitchen, casually swinging his legs back and forth in a most child-like manner, inspecting the Leaning Tower of Pisa that'd been relocated next to him. Whilst his raven black hair was as much as a rat's nest as what Elliot's was, his skin had a bit more colour to it. Not only were the bags under his eyes not as noticeable as what Elliot's were, his cheekbones were higher, eyes not as wide as what Elliot's could become. Though they did look scarily alike. For the briefest of moments, she considers that they could be family before dismissing the idea; Beyond had already informed her that his birthday was March the 21st, having passed before she came her. And she knew from interviewing Wammy that Elliot's date of birth was this month; there wasn't enough time between them to be brother and sister. Cousins was a possibility, but the chances of the family perishing along with Aunts and Uncles?  
Unlikely.

"There's some Mulberry Jam in the fridge if you want it; I made a few different jars the day after I arrived; but used all but that one cooking."  
Without any form of hesitation, Beyond launched himself from the counter top, landing perfectly on the floor before making his way over to the fridge, hands in pockets.

"Wait a second, where is Elliot?"

.

Having left Beyond in charge of the oven with the instructions of '_if oven bings, pull out with oven-mits_', the brunette went bouncing back up the stairs, heading for her intended destination.  
Elliot's door -firmly reattached and most probably strengthened with several bolts- stood before her, locked. Slamming her fists against it, Faith pressed her ear to the door, eagerly listening for the sigh of annoyance that signalled the resident genius's among genii presence. When no such noise came about, the Italian allowed her lips to purse with annoyance, sliding back before gently knocking on the door.

"Ellie, I have some delicious cake with me," she paused, staring hopefully at the door until it became apparent that the recluse was not coming out. "Damn it... I will find a way to get you out, mark my words!"

"Erm, Faith?"  
Spinning, the girl looked up at Daze, blush grazing her cheeks at being caught in the act of harassing Wammy's hermit.

"Yes Daze?" Her fellow brunette rubbed at the back of his head, ignorant of the sawdust that rested upon the vast majority of his tanned skin.

"Elliot skipped out this morning, early this morning. Wammy's taken him out; some big case came up that L passed onto him."  
She blinked, brown eyes wide before thanking the older teen as she made her way back down to the kitchen.

.

Beyond looked up as she slammed the door open, almost dropping the half empty jam jar that he'd been cooing over.

"He's left, not even said anything, just left! What kind of a friend is he?" Scowling and mixing up a new batter of cake mix with a little more force that she should, Faith didn't realize she'd growled till Beyond intimidated the noise, cackling to himself over the sound of it.

"That's classic; Elliot doesn't have any friends. I've never even seen the kid, I doubt he'll consider you a friend. He's more of a hermit than I am!"  
Pausing and wiping the batter from her face, Faith placed the bowl upon the worktop, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

"Has he ever come to you? I do believe that's what friends are suppose to do, but I assume he hasn't. So at this present moment in time, he can not be considered your friend, only an acquaintance."  
Lips slowly dropping into a frown, Faith leaned back against the counter, having once again picked up her bowl and begun whisking.

"What about you then? Are we just acquaintances?" Her face soured at the question she offered, shifting her weight from one hip to another. Having come from a rather small Italian village situated on the Southern coast, she'd always been used to friendly people. Never before had anyone not wished to be her friend, or at least exchange pleasantries.

"At the moment, we are friendly acquaintances, however, if you were to accept my invitation for ice-skating, then I think we'll be friends."

Faith let her eyes snap up, looking at Beyond in shock. "Ice-skating? You wanna go ice-skating?"

"Yes, I haven't been out of this place in a very long time, and even a recluse such as myself can go a bit crazy trapped between the four walls of a room. I'm sure I could pester Roger into letting us go for the evening."

Blinking, Faith slowly poured the cake mixture into the pan, pulling out the jam cakes the second she was finished. "Do you know what, I think I will, if you can persuade Roger."

* * *

As it turned out, Beyond was the smoothest talker, and greatest actor she'd ever had seen. He pulled crazy off quite well, and the second he left the office, he straightened up, ran a hand through his hair before returning to normal.

"That was rather easy; I've called a taxi, you may want to go get some gloves and a coat or something," he shrugged apathetically at the end of his sentence, trailing off and staring at the door. She watched him for a second, waiting for the raven haired teen to move and fetch his own winter essentials, but it soon became apparent Beyond wouldn't be fetching that when he headed off to the kitchen.  
Making her way over to the little room off the entrance that held all the orphans winter essentials, she snatched up her own dark blue coat, and a fluffy hat that'd been lying abandoned off to the side. Pulling the jacket onto her body, she jammed her hands into the pockets, pulling the gloves from their depths and the white hat that matched. Putting the fluffy hat on her own head, Faith made her way back over to the raven haired teen, who was looking down distastefully at the socks and sneakers he'd had to put on.  
Without warning, she thrust the knitted white hat onto his head, absent-mindedly admiring the panda features that'd been included in the design.

"If you're not going to wear a coat, you'll wear a hat."  
He looked back at her before laughing slightly, rubbing gingerly at the back of his head as he did so. The laugh was warm, and had a soft, caramel like feel to it.

"Of course Faith-san. Our taxi awaits."

.

The taxi was nothing like the expensive car she'd arrived at Wammy's in, it was a normal, run of the mill, silver car taxi. The interior was a little beat up, like it'd seen better days, but the atmosphere was warm and friendly; their taxi driver a bearded man with a charming personality that made up for his lacking appearance.

"So, Winchester Cathedral huh? Why you heading over that way?"

Beyond shifted, scowling at the seat-belt that Faith had all but threatened him into wearing, before answering, "ice skating, we haven't been out for a while, and Faith-san is new here, so I assumed it'd be a good way to introduce her to English culture."

"Ah, so you're not English than?" The taxi rumbled to a stop at the traffic lights, engine purring beneath the drivers feet and Faith shifting slightly in her seat.

"I'm afraid not, I just moved up from Southern Italy. It's a lot colder here."  
The man gave a barking laugh, and Faith slowly allowed herself to melt into the seat, shifting around inside her coat as the heat blasted across her face. She didn't miss the smug look Beyond was sending her; he'd thrown a black scarf on before they left, and was now hiding the lower half of his face beneath it. Though the amusement in his eyes gave away the expression he was most likely wearing.

"No idea why you'd want to move from Italy to this blooming cold country, I bet it's gorgeous there, right? I bet you get loads of sunshine."  
As Faith laughed, reciting tales of her home country, Beyond slowly allowed himself to relax in the car, watching the girl as she animated her tales with exaggerated hand movements. A rather entertaining tale included the girl slipping during the annual Vendemmia, which had ultimately resulted in her body covered in grapes, instead of her feet as it was suppose to. He couldn't quite help the snort of amusement when she suggested that Wammy's should have their own and then sell it to Roger and friends for a few extra bucks, trying to picture the orphans sliding around in wooden tubs filled to the brim with grapes.  
Oddly enough, the image came quite easily, seeing as most of the orphans hated shoes and/or socks.

"I don't think Wammy would approve if we went around making alcohol."

"Nonsense, Mr Wammy would understand it's a tradition from my country! Mello can even back me up! I don't think he's taken part in a Vendemmia before, so it'll be great for him!"  
Rolling his eyes when she didn't heed his warning, Beyond shuffled in his seat as he spotted the Cathedral.

"Well, this is out stop."

* * *

The ice rink wasn't jam packed like it would be come Christmas time. There were a few children skating around, trying to get a feel for the sport, and the odd teen zooming between concerned parents, but there was a lesser crowds than what they're had been last year.  
Having placed the deposit on the skates, Beyond turned back to Faith and offered up the pair. She'd frowned a bit, taking a hold of the footwear and kicking off her boots as she did so. She fiddled with the laces, muttering what he assumed to be Italian curses under her breath until they were finally secure. During this time, he'd managed to get his own feet into the pair that were a size too big -just the way he liked them- and pull on a pair of black gloves he'd stuffed into his pocket. No matter how much he disliked them, ice-burn was something he'd rather not encounter again.  
He did however, get another chuckle as Faith stumbled across to him, staring down at the ice skates in a mixture of distrust and distaste.

"Come along Faith-san, I'm sure you'll pick it up easily."

.

Beyond, she quickly found out, was an excellent at skating. When he made the transition from ground to ice, it was as if there was no difference. He flew around the rink, not at a reasonably fast pace, but so smoothly it was with burning annoyance she stepped out onto the rink herself. In her part of Italy, they didn't have anything like this, or at least, anything that'd been nearby. Nor had she ever taken an interest in anything to do with ice unless there was a cream added on the end.  
Yet, Beyond assured her that it was a typically English thing that was often done during the Christmas period, so she might as well pick it up now.

As the blades attached to her feet met the ice, Faith frowned to herself, looking up as Beyond glided across to her. He stopped, gathering little chipping of ice near the bottom of his silver blades before bowing. Several people clapped, mostly kids but there was the odd parent that'd been impressed with his display.

"How the hell can you do that," the brunette hissed, glaring at the solid water beneath her feet as she did so.

"As an orphanage, we've only ever been ice-skating once, which was last year. I'd never done it before myself, never really took an interest in the sport whilst I lived in Japan."  
Filing away the boy's nationality, Faith turned to look at some of the other teens that were reasonably steady on their feet. Her eyes tracked the movements, the brain that'd somehow gotten her into Wammy's processing the movement, she slowly began to copy, clinging to the side of the rink.  
Beside her, Beyond turned, skating backward next to her with a teasing grin across his face.

"We only spent an hour here, but by the time we were done, almost everyone over four had managed to pick it up." With that, he took off again, this time at a much faster pace, leaving twin tracks in the ice as he made is way around. As if to prove his proficiency with moving across the slippy surface, the raven leapt into the air, turning twice before landing with incredible ease.  
Pushing away the burning jealously that came with witnessing the other teens smooth movement, Faith allowed herself a movement of bravery, in which she let go of the railing, standing upon her own two feet for the briefest of seconds. Unsurprisingly, she quickly lost her balance, dropping to the ice and landing roughly on her backside.

"When you fall over, curl your fingers in, or you'll lose them to someone's blade."  
Instantly balling her hands into fists, Faith looked up at Beyond's sudden appearance, the dark haired teen stood over her with a smug grin smeared across his face. He offered a hand froward, dark eyes peeking out from the panda hat and black scarf.

"Come on, I'll show you how it's done."  
Getting pulled to her feet, Faith quickly dusted the ice from her bottom, frowning at the damp that was already seeping into her clothes. Beyond never let go of her hand, instead, he proceeded to pull her around the rink at blindingly fast speeds that instantly had her clutching to him, scowling as she did so.

.

After ten minutes of being forced to get used to skating, Beyond let go of her hand, skating off before she could reattach herself to him. Still with the momentum from racing around the rink, Faith was forced to adapt, and adapt quickly, or smash into the side of the railings. It took another five minutes before she became confident enough to start catching up to Beyond, who was now skating teasingly just out of reach. The black hair poking out from under his hat swayed with the movement as he slid from one skate to the other, and Faith focused her gaze on that.  
It was another half an hour later that she finally managed to catch up to him, and even then it was only because he'd slowed down.

"Are we done for the day? Because I'd like to head into town and pick up some sweets or something."  
Nodding, Beyond eagerly pulled off his gloves, skating to the edge and not even watching where he was going. Scowling, Faith took a minute to remember just how to skate again, following after her odd, raven haired friend and scowling as she went.  
It took a few minutes for the blood to start running through her hands again, and the boots came off soon after that. Whilst she was putting her shoes back on, Beyond had gone to return the skates and fetch back his deposit. A few other teens were looking over at them in confusion, one of them waving at her, a gesture she gingerly returned.  
However, before one of them could come over and start talking to them, Beyond pulled her to her feet, offering up a light smile as he did so.

"There's a local Chocolatier shop just a street away, we can head over there if you want Faith-san."

"Sure, I guess."

Winter was obviously approaching, the nip of the cool wind was harsh against Faith's uncovered face, and she quickly wished that she'd grabbed a scarf like Beyond.  
Speaking of the elder teen, he had made a nest out of the material for his head to hide in, but he didn't seemed bothered in the slightest that he was only wearing one layer in this cold. Growling under breath, Faith shuffled closer to Beyond, wondering if he was some kind human space heater. However,when she brushed her hand against his, she jolted the appendage back in shock.

"You're freezing!" She hissed, glaring at the piece of skin that her hand had touch. He just shrugged, as if not shocked by this, but pocketed his hand all the same.

"That is to be expected without a coat, but I'd rather be cold than uncomfortably warm. I can't think as well when I'm too warm."

"Huh... I've never really noticed if temperature affects how well I think..." She trailed off at the sight of the chocolate shop, a small smile over taking her face. Squealing, she dashed inside, leaving a rather bemused Beyond shaking his head, before he too followed her in.

* * *

From where he was lounged across the armchair, Mello let out a low groan. Mello was bored, and with Near off in some meeting -even though he didn't talk- about his super high IQ -which was sounding very suspicious to Mello- that left no one for Mello to bully/hang out with. Faith had disappeared.  
He'd asked Cathy and Kara, two of the people Faith hung out with a lot, but they didn't know where she'd gone. It wasn't until the front door opened that Mello looked up, face lighting up at who appeared at the threshold.

"Faith!" Bouncing over to the girl, he leapt up into her arms, clinging to the girls waist so tight that even if she let go of him he'd still remain in place.

"Hi Mello, we just got from town; I brought chocolates!" As if to prove her point, Faith wiggled the bag in her grasp, the promise of sweet treats echoing in his little ears.  
Squeaking with excitement, Mello clutched at the girls neck with one hand, attempting to reach for the bag with his other hand as he did so. Laughing, Faith settled him down on the floor before frowning him a bag of chocolate smiley's. He watched as she bid the raven haired teen beside her a goodbye, but not before throwing him some form of sweet and shouting that it had jam inside as the guy raced upstairs with it.

"Who was that? It ain't Elliot, because he doesn't move that fast..."

"That was Beyond, he showed me the wonders of ice skating; which I am never doing again."  
Chuckling, Mello offered up one of the smiley faces, scowling in protest when his fellow Italian stuffed her hand into the bag and took a few, completely ignoring his offer.

"Try not to be greedy Mello," she mused, ruffling his hair as she did so.

"But it's chocolate!"

Laughing at the younger boys declaration, she pulled him up, cradling the chocoholic by her side like one would carry a rugby ball. "Come on, let's go crack open the Leaning Tower and share it around."

* * *

Uh, pew! Ree-yuck! Tiggers don't like ice skating!  
-Tigger

* * *

**Hahaha, a much longer chapter! And a before-going-crazy Beyond! I think this is better in 3rd person, what do you think?**

**I'm going to try and make the whole 'Faith in the dark about L' thing longer this time, so enjoy?**

**Thank you for the reviews, please drop another one?**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	5. Better Standard

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 5  
****Better Standard**

**October 10th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Kara: Ten years and four months (May 18th 1987)_

_Beyond; Fifteen years and six months (March 21st 1982)_

_Cathy: Fifteen years and nine months (Janurary 2nd 1982)_

_Daze; Sixteen and one month (September 6th 1981)_

* * *

Arms raised above her head, Faith let out the breath she'd been holding, arms flopping back down to her sides as she groaned.

"Come on then," she murmured, turning to face Kara. The ten year old looked back at her before grinning. The floppy mess of dark brown curls that rested upon his head swayed back and fourth as he bounced from foot to foot, light green eyes staring out from under the mop of hair.

"Funny Faith," he grunted, Irish accent thick as he spoke, "but when I win, you've got to make what I want for dinner! Got it?"  
The brunette laughed, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Sure Kara, sure. Just remember, you owe me a new move for sparring with you."  
The ten year old laughed, rolling his eyes and in no way intimidated by his older opponent. He flexed in arms, cocking his head to one side before suddenly dashing forwards, ignoring Faith's grab for his forearm. Twisting, the Irishman ducked low, sliding effortlessly between Faith's legs and taking a good grip on them as he went past. Instantly the brunette was on the floor, only just managing to catch herself at the last moment. Kara was already back on his feet, leaping back and twisting his torso till his right fist was rocketing forwards at the floored brunette. Spinning, Faith rolled to a side, twisting her leg till her foot caught Kara's ankle and pulled him to join her on the floor. Both orphans leapt back to their feet, Kara in an impressive tuck and roll and Faith in an even more impressive back-flip that had Kara whining in annoyance.

"Why the hell are you so flexible; I can't do that yet."

The brunette just grinned, replying with "I'm a girl, of course I'm going to be more flexible," before shrugging her shoulders, clumsily blocking the kick Kara threw her way. The green eyed boy followed it up by spinning on his heel, sending his left fist into the cooks unprotected right side that had her dropping to the floor, winded.

"I win," Kara murmured, placing his foot atop her side whilst Faith gasped for breath, glaring up at her junior.

"Okay, I give."

* * *

Running a tender hand across her bruising ribs, Faith dipped her head to Kara as he shot off in the opposite direction, shouting that'd he'd be along to collect his chicken pie at some point in the future. Watching as the future martial arts champion made his getaway, Faith let a low sigh escape her lips, rolling her eyes as she did so. And then she paused at the figure slowly making his way down the hallway. Mr Wammy was making his way to his office, a file tucked neatly under his arm and his blue eyes peering out from under his half-moon glasses.

"Mr Wammy?"  
The man paused, slowly turning to look at Faith before a small smile lit his face.

"Ah, Miss Faith. Can I help you with anything?"

"Erm, it's just, I thought you went out with Elliot?"  
He chuckled lightly, looking down at the newest addition to their household. Her forehead was lightly coated in sweat, brown hair sticking to the skin and happy brown eyes staring back up at him.

"I did accompany Elliot to the location of his case. We came back an hour ago. I shall let you go find him."  
The Italian nodded, pawing at the sticky material of her shirt before dashing away, waving joyously as she went.

.

Having retrieved a packet of cookies from the kitchen -home-made of course- Faith found herself stood outside of Elliot's door. It felt like she'd been doing this irritatingly often, and as she shifted nervously from foot to foot, she quickly realized she had indeed been doing this quite often. Banging on the door, the brunette pressed her ear against the door, smiling in relief when she heard the annoyed sigh from within.

"Elliot! Lemme talk to you!" She waited for a minute, but when there was no sudden movement of the door, or the sound of the occupant inviting her in, Faith scowled, storming off and heading to the third floor of the building.

* * *

Beyond Birthday had been incautiously balancing three jam jars in one hand when there was a knock at his door. Head shooting up in confusion, he turned to look at the offending wood, chewing non too delicately on his lip as he did so. Placing the jam jars back on his desk, along with the half empty one, Beyond made his way over, bare feet brushing against the worn carpet. Pulling back the door, he frowned a bit more at what he saw.  
It was neither Wammy or Roger that stood there like every other time he'd opened the door; instead, Faith was before him, holding a coil of rope in one hand, and a bag of cookies in the other. She most certainly wasn't here to shout at him for his anti-social ways, so he stepped aside, letting her into his room. The Italian made her way in, taking a look around the nondescript space before making her way over to his bed, obviously not interested in informing him of the reason behind her current presence. With mild curiosity, he watched as she tied one edge of the rope to the foot of his bed, testing the strength of her knot once she was done.

"Beyond, are you any good with knots?"  
Shrugging, the raven haired teen made his way over, crouching to inspect the rather common knotwork.

"Will it take my weight?"  
He laughed at that, shaking his head. There was no way a Granny knot would hold her weight with this kind of rope.

"No, you want to use a double figure of eight," As he spoke, Beyond undid the rather shoddy knot work, looking up at Faith as she stared back at him like a deer caught in head-lights. "Here, I'll show you."  
Within seconds, the rope was wound around the bed, securely in place.

"Why are you in my room?" He mused, watching as Faith tested the rope once again, nodding her head as she deemed it satisfactory. Her brown hair was up in a small ponytail at the base of her skull, clips holding back the bangs that normally fell across her forehead.

"Did you know your room is right above Elliot's? I'm going to abseil down and unlock his window seeing as he doesn't answer the door," as she spoke, Faith produced a small metallic key from her pocket; every orphan had one, all the windows where locked with the same key after all.

"I see... And you don't consider this dangerous in any form?" Watching as the brunette once again shrugged, Beyond grudgingly admitted that she had some guts for a girl.

"I trust myself to be able to hold on to the rope," she murmured, looping the rope through the belt on her jeans, "and I trust your knotwork; what's there to worry about?"

"What if I cut the rope?"  
Now she did pause, almost dropping the rope she was holding. Turning to him from where she'd been facing the window, Faith let out a light laugh.

"You're weird, you know that?"

"We all are." Beyond smiled, settling himself upon his bed and watching as the female teen pushed open his window, peeking her head outside.

"Well, if I die, you can have the apple pie in the fridge; don't give it to Elliot seeing as he'd have played an indirect part in my death."  
He wasn't particularly fond of pie, but nodded anyway, watching as she began to descend. Making his way over and watching as the girl wrestled with her key and Elliot's window, Beyond allowed himself to smile slightly.

Maybe socializing a tad wouldn't be bad if these were the mad antics that became of it.

* * *

From where he was sat in his room, L stiffened when he heard his window creek. Whilst he was sure the weather reporter had said low wind, it wouldn't be the first time he was wrong. When his window opened, he did sigh, slowly closing his laptop before turning to look at the intruder to his room. Faith was resting upon his window frame, hanging heedlessly half in and half out, a rope attached unprofessionally to her belt. Her hair was a messy, tousled by the wind and half the hair that usually rested across her forehead was thrown in all different directions, with the rest clipped back. She shook her head, reminding him of a dog coming out of the sea, before she offered up a grin.

"It's raining outside," she mused, running a hand across her cheeks and flicking water away as she did so. A bright orange, woollen body warmer covered her torso, a grey hoodie beneath it. A sheepish grin had spread across her face, and she shook the bag she was holding, drawing his attention.

"And look, I brought cookies!" Now, L's well trained eyes slipped from the girls weathered form, falling upon the plastic bag she clutched in her grasp.

"Home-made?"

"But of course my dear Elliot, and you can have one for every minute you spend talking to me." And then she paused, turning to look at the modern, digital clock that rested upon his wall. Her head titled to a side, lips pursed until she smiled lightly.

"Yep, you can have one now." Without any invitation, she threw herself down onto his bed -which he made a note of to wash at a later date- where she patted the mattress beside her, gesturing for him to join her.

"I hardly think that a singular cookie is worth a minute of my time," L grumbled, watching as the Italian rolled her eyes, pulling one of the biscuits from the bag before waving it around in front of his face. Unsurprisingly, he took it within an instant, carefully settling himself next to her and reopening his laptop.

"Please close the window; it's distracting."  
As the brunette got up to close her personal door, L brought up his list of cases, scrolling through them as the last of the cookie passed between his teeth. Faith reappeared next to him, sat crossed legged and staring at the screen. She wasn't going out of her way to look, and if he were to angle it just right, she wouldn't be able to see anything, but there was nothing of interest to hide.

"So," Faith murmured, offering up another cookie as she did so, "what case are you working on now?"  
Taking the dessert, L offered the girl no explanation, instead loading up his latest case and spinning the laptop around for her to view. Unsure of what possessed him to share this information, the detective just allowed his feet to twitch as he sat, waiting for her to read. How she managed in life when reading so agonizingly slow, he wasn't quite sure. Twenty seconds of scanning over the key information, Faith nodded slightly, looking back up at him and smiling again.

"South Africa huh? It's warm there isn't it... If you're going, take me with you!"  
Flinching back, L looked at the girl beside him, eyes narrowed compared to their usually wide-eyed state.

"I'm afraid that won't be happening Faith-san, it is imperative that you remain here."

"Well how come you can leave for awesome stuff but no one else can?"

"Because I am smarter than you, and thus, your senior," L replied, rolling his eyes as he did so, and not in a very good natured way, "I believe we covered the topic of my superiority a few days prior." He didn't miss the way her face scrunched up in annoyance, lines marring her forehead as her eyebrows drew together. The blatant display of irritation over something so trivial had the raven haired teen momentarily stumped, thumb brushing across his lip.

"And speaking of leaving our quaint accommodations, I've notified the authorities that both yourself and Beyond left, regardless of the ruling stating against such actions. You'll be getting penalized soon enough for your disobedience."

"What?!"  
Looking back up from his laptop screen, L allowed his a frown to make it's way across his face, looking quizzically at the girl.

"But, but Beyond got Roger's permission!"

"Authorisation regarding leaving the establishment is not something Roger is being paid for."

"That's ridiculous! What kind of genii are you raising here if they don't take the initiative?! You, you, you cake-stealing weasel!" Snorting and red in the face, Faith dropped onto the bed beside him, sending cookies flying everywhere in her wake. Catching on before it could drop onto his laptop and infest the keyboard with any more crumbles, L allowed a childish smile to grace his features at his victory within their argument. However, the emotion was soon wiped off his face as he registered the insult tagged onto the end of the sentence.

"I am a cake-stealing weasel?" Cocking his head to a side, he regarded the still troubled form of Faith with curious, wide eyes.

"I wanted to call you something worse, but knowing you, you'd try to get me arrested for it or something." Her bottom lip jutted forwards and she looked away guiltily, cheeks puffed up from the air collected in her mouth, looking up like a hamster, or perhaps some other small rodent. L stared a bit before attempting to intimidate the expression whilst she wasn't looking. He found with some satisfaction he too could intimidate small rodents, and even found himself shifting the air from cheek to cheek, looking like he'd stashed away a rather large jawbreaker.

"Ah yes, verbal assault. An intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact."  
Faith's cheeks deflated in a long, exasperated sigh, the air rushing through her lips and brushing against L's skin. He made a mental note to get a bath whilst his sheets were being cleaned.

"Let me guess, textbook definition there? What are you, some kind of super-computer?"

"Illogical, whilst the human body does run off electrical impulses, it is a far cry away from being a super computer. I am very much human, just like yourself, but I am of a better standard."  
She stared blankly at him for a second; L could only see her out of the corner of his eyes, but she was most definitely staring at him, he could see that much.

"You don't do jokes, do you?"  
Blinking, the detective replayed the conversation over in his head, analysing every word, every tone, but found nothing humorous about the situation presented before him.

"I'm afraid I do not see the joke within our conversation, I either missed it or you do not make a very good comedian."  
Faith let out another troubled sigh, picking herself up from the bed before snatching up one of the cookies that now littered the bedspread.

"And with that, I'll take my leave. Have fun Elliot, as soon as I've been 'penalized'" the word was accompanied by the girl's index fingers pointing up before coiling twice, most likely to emphasise the apostrophes around the word, "I'll be back to bug you again, mark my words." She jostled the door a bit before removing the bolt, smiling smugly, as if she'd won some form of argument.  
The door swung closed, and L added 'make Faith-sans punishment longer' to his ever growing list of things to do.

* * *

The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world  
-Leonard Cohen

* * *

**Blah, short chapter is short, I am ill, L is an idiot. **

**Thank you for the reviews, bit upset they've dipped in numbers, but I was expecting it to be honest. Please drop another one?**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	6. Only This Once

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 6  
****Only This Once**

**October 15th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Matt: Four years and eight months (February 1st 1992)_

_Cathy: Fifteen years and nine months (Janurary 2nd 1982)_

* * *

Today, Mello was having another IQ test. The blonde child has requested -rather, all but demanded another- one the second Near's results had returned and been announced to the others, so he was off god knows where doing god knows what. Which meant Faith was now left with the opportunity to hang out with Near today. No interruptions.  
Fresh from her house arrest -which basically meant she wasn't to leave her room for anything short of an emergency-, the Italian chef was more than ready for the day's challenges. She'd even put off her original plan to bug Elliot in favour of spending quality time with Near. Speaking of her punishment, it was hardly fair Beyond had gotten the same one, the boy never even came out of his room; if it was not for the fact food was brought to him during the past five day's, he'd probably not even noticed the change in pace.  
As Mr Wammy had requested her presence on his outing today, Faith found herself lying upon the floor, back arched slightly and a grimace on her face. Between her hands, she held each edge of her jeans, desperately trying to get button to meet hole. The material stretched around her developing hips, but not nearly enough for her to complete the task.  
Letting out another growl, she arched a bit further, sucking in as much of her stomach as she could and almost letting out a hiss of victory as button finally became acquainted with hole. Hopefully they'd find enough reason to stay together. At least, for the rest of the day.  
From where she was watching from the door, Cathy allowed a small smile to stretch across her lips. Her hair, now bleached a bright, golden blonde, was thrown up onto the top of her head, contained in a messy bun.

"Someone's been trying a few too many of her creations."  
Scowling under her breath, Faith sat up, shifting her hips around and was satisfied to notice the button did not rocket away from her pants.

"Oh be quite Cathy; I can't believe I can't fit in an eight anymore."

"If it's any consolation your developing curves, with just a little pudgy on the side. In my professional opinion, I think you'll end up a size twelve because of hips and boobs."

"But everyone else is so thin here!"  
It was quite true, Cathy was a petite size six, delicate but still managing to look perfectly healthy.

"Just the way the cookie crumbles Faith. Now stop with the insecurities! Up up up, you've got places to go, people to see!"

* * *

The October wind was reasonably chilly. Stood with Near resting against her hip, Faith looked over at Mr Wammy.

"Are you sure you want us here? I mean, it's not like we're the grand welcoming committee or anything."  
Near seemed to agree with her if the way he threw his rocket ship at Mr Wammy was any indication. The elder man caught the toy all the same, lifting it delicately in his fingers and offering it back to Near. The white haired boy took it, chubby hand curling around the painted white body before smacking it against Faith's arm, pointing back towards the front door as he did so.

"Miss Faith, I do believe you are one of the most... social orphans we've taken in, and everyone seems to have taken a shine to your personality. I do believe that qualifies you as the welcoming committee. Near is our quietest child, and having another boy the same age nearby may help the transition from orphanage to orphanage."  
Near once again brought the rocket back down on Faith's shoulder, face masked in a frown of annoyance.

"Almost everyone, Elliot still hates me; I swear, he's colder than the Alps."  
Chuckling, Mr Wammy simply shook his head, drawing the car door open and looking up through those half-moon glasses with expecting, fatherly eyes. The second those eyes landed on her, Faith knew she was doomed. It was impossibly to deny those warm eyes and not just follow along. Too much exposure to those soft blue eyes and you'd bend to every task presented before you.  
Crippled by those icy blue orbs, Faith bowed her head, catching Near's rocket before it could impale her nose.

"Okay, let's go."

.

The car was as comfortable as the day she'd been carted to the orphanage within it's confines. The black leather of the seats remained the same, soft to the touch but looking exquisite all the same. Shifting in her seat, Faith sent Near an apologetic smile, watching as the white haired tot slammed that poor old rocket into the side of his car-seat. Though he didn't do a whole lot of moving around at Wammy's, it was safe to say that Near did not like being held in place. He'd attempted to open the belt buckle five times already, but Mr Wammy had accounted for Near's inner escape artist, making sure it required adult strength to open, something Near didn't currently possess. So he'd taken to attempting to batter down the sides instead. It would have been cute had he not actually managed to produce a dint with just the plastic spaceship.  
They'd been driving for the past twenty minutes now and a light drizzling had started to appear from the sky. Nothing much to worry about, unless the orphans decided upon puddle jumping, in which case there would be many runny noses the next day. Drumming her fingers upon the door-handle, Faith allowed a low exhale to escape her lips, eyes drooping lowly shut. There was going to be good half-hour wait before they arrived at the airport, and she was damn sure that'd it'd be a race against time on the way back; whether they'd make it to Wammy's before Near destroys his car seat. From the looks of it, it'd be a close call.

"What's the kid like we're picking up Mr Wammy?"  
Wammy looked back at her, grey eyebrows set firmly in place as he navigated the roads.

"He's picked the name Matt; he's just a little younger than Mello and he's not been too lucky so far." That was practically Wammy speak for abusive past. "His files on the passenger seat if you want it."  
Nodding, Faith reached over plucking the dull red folder up. Unfortunately, she came within an arm length of Near during this, and ended up having a rocket blasted into her cheek. Scowling and rubbing at the injured flesh, Faith looked back at Near and pouted.

"Seriously? Come on Near, it's not that much longer."  
The white haired child just snorted, blowing a raspberry in her general direction before resuming his war with the car seat.

Flicking open the folder in front of her, Faith began reading, running her finger over the words and wincing a little at the picture. It was of a fair skinned, red head kid with bright green eyes. He was pretty cute, if it wasn't for the dark bruise running along one side of her face. She must have made some sound of displeasure, because Wammy hummed along in agreement, even Near pausing to look over at the file. She didn't doubt that the boy could read, even if he made out he couldn't most of the time, so angled the writing away from him. She didn't want the little albino knowing what grievous bodily harm was yet.

* * *

'_Matt, born February first, 1993.  
Brought to Wammy's home for Orphans, Albany on the 11__th__ of October due to death of mother. IQ was found to be extraordinary high upon his second day since arrival, referred to Wammy's house, England.  
Mother was a know abuser of drugs, bruises through to be from a dealer or romantic relation of mother, investigation still under-way. Mother died of stab wounds, leaving Matt home for two day's before authorities were alerted.  
Found to be undernourished, with bruises and other wounds -see medical sheet below- serious neglect.  
Since arrival, Matt has proven to be withdrawn, interacting little with the other children and does not appear to trust his handlers. He has eaten very little so far, only foods which are cold and sealed before being given to him. He has been shown to outwardly avoid the male care-workers between the age of twenty to forty, though does not appear to have any problems with the elder care-workers. He responds to female workers of all age, but does so hesitantly.  
Requested transfer from Albany, Oregon, America due to unusually high IQ score, along with a request for further testing.'_

* * *

Scowling and dropping the folder back onto the front seat -not needing to pay any more attention to the medical and official reports- Faith shuffled back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest.

"I hate people like that, I hope L's on this case."

"He's passed it down to Elliot, seeing as he will be able to initiate closer contact to Matt. I'm sure he can manage it." Wammy's voice floated from the front seat back, calming her frazzled nerves ever so slightly.

"Good. I mean, Elliot's just as good. I can bug him for results then. Maybe bribe him with a cake or something." She stared out the window once again before realizing they were entering a car park at what she assumed to be the air-port. Near had stopped his brutal massacre of the car seat in order to have a look around, one chubby hand pressed up against the blacked out windows and a look of curiosity upon his face.

Reaching over and unclipping the toddler, Faith scooped him up into her arms, smiling when he ran the rocket through the air and not into her head this time.

"Okay, we're gonna pick up Matt, then we'll be heading home, okay? Maybe even play aeroplanes while we're here?"  
Near face lit up brighter than Elliot around cake. Aeroplanes was a little game that Faith had always placed back as a child, which involved the eldest holding the youngest like a rugby ball and running around the room with them, the younger one having their arms held out like an aeroplane. It usually ended with them 'crash-landing' into a sofa or bed, but seeing as there wasn't any nearby, then they'd just be landing like a normal plane this time. Near managed to grab a bundle of her hair on the way out, pulling at it till he was resting upon the girls side, one arm supporting him and the other trying to untangle her hair from his fingers. Wammy just looked at them and laughed, shaking his head as he plucked his phone from his pocket and began calling Roger to make arrangements. Adjusting Near till she was holding the white haired tot like a rugby ball, Faith laughed as he stuck out his arms in a plane like fashion, on clutching his rocket.

"Come on then Near, let's go get a look at the planes,."  
And with that, Air-Near took off.

* * *

Standing beside one of the large glass windows that overlooked the runway and planes, Faith shuffled Near about on her hip, offering up a bite of the chocolate bar she was holding. Grimacing, Near pushed it away, instead pointing back towards the shopping area and-

"Is that a toy store?"  
Beside her, Mr Wammy laughed, seating himself in a chair before pulling out a crisp twenty pound note.

"Go and buy Near something, use five of it to get yourselves something to eat."

"Do you want anything Mr Wammy?" Faith tucked the money into the pocket of her worn jeans, fluffing Near's hair as he attempted to steer her in the right direction.

"No thank you Faith. I shall have something upon our return home."  
Shrugging, because she was mightily hungry, Faith began to make her way over, cuddling Near close to her chest and ignoring the odd glances the albino child was getting. Distantly, she heard on child questioning her mother as to why 'that boy over there has white hair', and Faith instantly began tickling at the boy's sides, hoping to god it would distract him enough. Near didn't need the curious stares he was getting right now, there was still an odd look in Rogers eye whenever he saw Near, as white as snow amongst the vast colours of Wammy's house. Sure he was different, but that made him all the more adorable in Faith's eyes.

.

Shopping with Near was incredibly different to what it was like with Mello. Whilst the blond hellion would often attempt to prise more money from the amount she'd allocated him, Near took one look at the toys out of their price range and then passed them by, crawling along the floor and weaving between parents legs. He came to a stop when he noticed a set of stacking blocks, a fifty for five pound. Chewing on his lip, the white haired toddler drew one box out, followed by another and then another. Dark blue, almost black eyes looked up at her, not for confirmation upon his counting skills, but more like he was asking if it was okay for him to have the blocks. Not to say no to anything the boy had pointed out, especially when parents were staring at the little albino boy and his genius counting skills, Faith scooped up the boxes, watching in amusement as Near made his way over to the till, effortlessly dodging parents and moody looking teens that'd been dragged into the store by little siblings.  
The woman working at the counter was round, with tanned looked skin and frizzy blond hair and stuck up on the sides of her head in a rather grand afro. Pulling Near up till he was seated upon the counter-top, Faith smiled, Pushing the three boxes forwards and watching as the woman looked between them.

"That'll be £15 please," she mused, eyebrows crinkling inwards as she thought. Clearly deciding whether or not she wanted to comment on the fact Near was an albino, or how she was looking after him when they were clearly not related. Handing over the money, Faith turned to Near, pouting ever so slightly before asking the child how much money she should be getting back. Without hesitation, Near held up all five digits on his hand, expression bored. Clearly he was looking for something a little more challenging.

"I don't mean to brag," Faith mused, accepting the bag in one hand before scooping Near up with her other, "but my baby brother's kind of a genius."

* * *

It was half an hour later, twenty minutes after their flight had landed, that the passengers began making their way out of the plane. By this point, Near had managed to recreate a plane with the blocks, ignoring the awed parents who stared in shock, especially when he pushed it down and started to create something else. Faith had bought three sandwiches, two of which had already been eaten, and one which was sat as back-up, in case Matt wanted something to eat when he got there.  
Brushing her fringe back from her face and hiding a block behind her back at Near resumed building, Faith let her thoughts drift out the airport, back home to Wammy's. Was this how Elliot spent most of his time, travelling from country to country and waiting in an airport for the next flight? Internally, she snorted, because he probably would be sat with a laptop, clicking through whatever case he was working on at the time and sat in a weird crouch as passer-bys gawked at him. He was probably doing that at this moment in time, now that she thought about it.  
Sat in his room with no one bugging him, only resurfacing to raid the fridge for a selection of sugary goodies. And seeing as she wasn't at home at this current time, then he'd have free rein over the kitchen. Hell, she might return to find her stock had been bled dry, nothing but the basic ingredients left. Maybe he'd get desperate enough to eat the cooking chocolate, though she hoped not. Until her magic had been worked, that 'chocolate' tasted awful. Not even Mello, self proclaimed king of chocolate, could stand the stuff. Though he did have a bit every month, just to make sure it hadn't improved since he'd last sampled it.  
And it never did.

.

Rolling her shoulders back, Faiths stood when Wammy did, following the elder mans gaze.  
A woman, wearing what could only be described as a cream coloured power suit was making her way over, holding onto the hand of an obviously uncomfortable red head child. A base-ball cap was drawn over his head, so that only the longest strands of hair were poking out beneath it, the cap hiding the brilliant green eyes she knew would be under there. The skin on the right side of his face was clearly covered in concealer, probably by the woman so that they didn't draw any attention to the clear case of child-abuse. It'd be very uncomfortable for the authorities to get the wrong idea, and Faith had a feeling L wouldn't be too happy if he got a call asking him to get one of Wammy's workers out of prison.

"Mr Wammy, it is a pleasure to meet you." The woman spoke with a thick American accent, the kind breed into a person through numerous American ancestors and Faith found herself smiling despite herself.

"Faith, this is Mrs Hall, she runs Wammy's over in Oregon. Mrs Hall, this is Faith and Near."  
The little albino had made the six foot crawl from his work, tugging at Faith's hand till she relented and gave up the block she'd snuck away. Near sent her an annoyed glare -clearly he knew exactly how many blocks he was suppose to have- before he went back to his masterpiece, just to place the final block atop it.

When Wammy gestured for her to go forwards, Faith nodded lightly, taking a step towards Matt before dropping to her knees. The green eyed child was hiding behind Mrs Hall, not making any more contact than the current hand holding. It wasn't difficult to conclude that Matt hadn't made the contact first by the distrustful look upon his face. Now that she was at eye-level with the boy, Faith smiled, offering out her hand in a slow movement that hopefully wouldn't scare the boy.

"Hi Matt, my names Faith. Will you come say hello to me?"  
Peeking out around the legs of his current handler, Matt blinked, wearily eyeing up the offered hand. Almost painfully slow, he made his way out before carefully placing his hand in hers, every movement he made was hesitant.  
Mrs Hall took one look at the scene before clearly deciding that Matt was not her problem anymore, instead turning to Wammy and began discussing her accommodation until her flight out tomorrow.

Ignoring the adults above them, Faith crossed her legs, still holding onto Matt's hand.

"You can sit down if you want Matt. How was your flight?"  
Matt stared back at her before sitting down in front of her, but not letting go of her hand as he did so.

"It was okay," the boy's voice was soft, quiet, as if he wasn't used to being heard. She'd be changing that soon enough though, especially if she could get Mello to take him under his wing. Near had made his way over and was now starting to build a castle around the two with his blocks, the previous sculpture now in pieces.

"This is Near. He hasn't spoken yet, but he's smart. Kinda like you. You're special Matt, and we want you to be part of our family, but we won't make you. Would you like to come live with us?" She was careful with her words, painfully aware that she could drag up bad memories with the wrong sentence, but from the boys almost thoughtful look, she hadn't approached those dangerous waters yet. Near was still building, nearing the end of his resources as Matt sat and thought, his grip having tightened on Faith's hand. He wasn't looking at her, instead observing Near as the boy finished up on his wall, looking around as if he wasn't totally satisfied with what he'd built, but that it'd do. It was when the boy crawled over into Faith's lap, curling up like a cat that Matt slowly nodded.

"Yes please."

"Can I hug you Matt? Because you are honestly adorable and really polite."  
If there was one thing her interactions with Elliot had taught her, it was that pushing boundaries usually got you somewhere, as long as you gave the other person a chance to escape. Instead of answering her verbally, Matt let got of her hand before cautiously climbing into her lap beside Near, watching every movement she made, as if waiting for her to hit him.  
When he was seated, Faith slowly drew her arm around his thin frame before pressing her face into his hat to hide the tears that'd sprung up in her eyes.

"I'll look after you Matt. I promise."

.

Wammy and Mrs Hall finished talking twenty or so minutes later, and it was at this point Faith realized that Near had fallen asleep upon her lap. Matt looked close to dozing off, but was clearly enjoying the chance for comfort, clutching at her shirt and looking like he most certainly did not want to let go. Glancing up to see her handler smiling down at her, Faith grinned as sheepishly as she could manage, shuffling Near about till he was resting against her chest, head nuzzled into the crook of her neck.

"Okay Matt, we're gonna go to the car, okay? Would you like to walk, or do you want me to carry you?"  
The little boy's head snapped up to stare at her, green eyes wide as he looked between her and the floor. He was frowning as he stepped back, clearing wanting to be carried, but not daring to ask it of her.

"Listen, I'm not going to hurt you or yell at you, I never will okay? That's a promise. If you want to be carried, you don't have to be scared to ask." Scooping up the tired American into her free arm, Faith juggled the two until she was certain they were comfortable. During their little confrontation, Mr Wammy had gathered together all of Near's blocks, the little rocket-ship resting somewhere in the bag alongside them.

"Shall we head off than Faith?"

* * *

Thankfully, Matt had fallen asleep at some point on the car journey, leaving Faith to relax between the two of them now. She was almost ashamed to find her own eyelids had been drooping when the pulled up outside of Wammy's house and quickly began rubbing the sleep from between her eyelashes. From the amused look that Wammy sent her through the central mirror, it was obvious she hadn't been fast enough.

"Matt sweetie?" She was hesitant to place her hands upon him, she'd managed to build up a shaky form of trust so far, the basic foundations of what would hopefully become like the relationship she shared with both Mello and Near. But one wrong move and those foundations would be gone, and it'd take a very long while to reset them. Luckily, she was spared from having to shake Matt awake as it seemed he was a light sleeper. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open, confusion evident in them as he looked around, pouting ever so slightly.

"Hi Matt, remember me?"  
His eyes did a quick sweep of his form before a nodding movement came from his head, a light blush upon the side of his face that wasn't covered in make-up.

"We're home now, do you mind if I carry you in?"  
Holding out his hands, Matt looked up at her shyly before turning to look at Near's sleeping form questioningly. Pulling the light red-head towards her, Faith gently ruffled his hair, checking for any lumps of bumps. Thankfully, they weren't any.

"Don't worry, Mr Wammy'll bring Near in. I'll introduce you to Mello and we'll get you something to eat okay, seeing as you didn't want that sandwich," Faith mused, gently clutching the boy to her chest and running a comforting hand up his back. Matt has rested his head upon her shoulder, one hand wrapped up in her hair and the other hanging lazily by his side. Nodding as politely as he could to Mr Wammy without upsetting the red-head, Faith began to make her way over to the front door.

.

Someone, most probably Roger, seemed to have informed everyone that there was gonna be a new kid, because almost everyone was hanging out in the reception room, chatting or playing with toys, trying to look like they weren't snooping. Waving lightly towards Cathy and Linda -both of whom cooed at the sight of Matt-, Faith made her way over to the kitchen, already knowing that Mello would without a doubt be in there, raiding the fridge on the off chance that Elliot had taken all the chocolate. She sincerely doubted he'd been allowed any in his IQ test, so he'd be hitting a withdrawal round about now.

Pushing open the door, Faith smiled upon seeing the blond boy sat up to table, pondering over his maths homework and scratching at his head. He looked up at the sight of her before his face lit up, mouth opened to shout something until he spotted Matt's huddled form. His eyes narrowed and the smile melted into a frown upon his face.

"Come on Matt, we'll get that rubbish cleaned off your face first."  
Carrying the boy over to the sink -but not before sending Mello an meaningful look to follow them, Faith plucked up a flannel as she went by. Running it under the cold water and gently rubbing it against Matt's skin, enough for the make-up to come off but not hard enough to press on the bruise, Faith paused to lift Mello up onto the counter-top to sit next to Matt. Instantly the shy red-head was looking at the floor, but not quick enough that Mello couldn't get a glimpse at the red-head's bruise. Slowly, the blond ran his hand down his own cheek, looking up at Faith with befuddled eyes that were clearly asking the important question. It seemed that Matt wasn't the only one that'd been unlucky in life. How Mello kept up such a happy persona, she'd never know.  
A short nod was all she offered him before she turned to the cupboard on the left, producing a key from her pocket at unlocking it.

"So what'll it be Matt? We've got cookies, flapjack, scones, muffins-"

"Go for the muffins!" Mello's loud voice interrupted her and Matt's head shot up, staring at the blond with his mouth almost hanging open in shock. "You'll like the muffins, Faith's the best cook in the world!"  
It seemed that Mello singing her cooking praises comforted Matt, a child his own age reassured him the food was okay to eat. As the red-head slowly nodded, Faith pulled a pack of home-made chocolate muffins out, offering them up to the two boy's. Instantly Mello had the pack, ripping them open and pulling one out. He looked between it -the muffin with the most chocolate chips in- and then back at Matt before sighing.

"I'll give you this one, but only this once, okay?"  
Matt just nodded, face a classic image of a rabbit stuck in headlights before the muffin was thrust into his hand. Parting with the muffin seemed to almost physically wound Mello, and Faith made a note to make sure the boy was treated to a rather grand chocolate cake at some point in the future. Because hell, that was Mello practically announcing that Matt was now his best friend.  
And if anyone would look out for Matt now, it was Mello.

* * *

The three spent about half an hour locked away in Mello's bedroom, where he'd pulled out the N64 and Mario cart, which saw both Mello and Faith trumped by Matt as soon as the red-head had gotten a handle on the controls. It was obvious that Mello was trying exceedingly hard not to throw a tantrum at Mat''s seventeen race winning streak. But every time the blond went to shout at him, all he could see was that big yellow bruise on the side of his face, and it was enough to keep him quiet. Alternating between snacking on cookies and muffins, Faith felt honest and truly full, and whilst it wasn't a real meal, it was good to see Matt eating something. Though it wasn't as much as Mello was eating, it was probably more than the little red-head had chowed down on than the last few days. When Matt's eyes began to slowly drop though, Faith knew it was bed-time, even though it was still light outside.

"Okay Matt, I think it's time for bed, okay?"  
Nodding sleepily, Matt crawled into her lap and Faith hoisted him up, frowning when Mello stared protesting.

"Mello, he's been on a long plane journey okay? I'm sure you can play some more in the morning. In fact, we'll bake a chocolate cake if you want." That was enough to settle the boy down, switching his game over to single player and promising to get his homework done in an hour or two.

As she was walking down the corridor, Faith looked down at Matt just in time to see him shut his mouth, as if he'd been going to say something but had thought better of it.

"What's up buddy? If you want something just ask, okay?"

"I don't wanna sleep on my own," Matt whispered, grip on her arm tightening to the point it was almost painful. Nodding and rubbing a hand down his back again, Faith allowed a small smile to comfort the child, ignoring the voice inside her head that demanded to find Elliot and assist in tracking down the culprit.

"You can sleep in my room tonight if you want. I won't leave, you just gotta change into your jammies first, okay?"  
At the minute nod she revived, Faith hugged him to her just a little more, pushing open the door to her bedroom with her foot. Inside were a spare pair of Mello's sleeping clothes, and Matt quickly changed into them whilst Faith took a look at the weather outside, changing her own clothes at the same time whilst they weren't looking at one another. The wind had picked up, tree branches rocking about in the heavy breeze.

"Someday we're gonna have to build a tree house out there," she paused in that train of thought, turning back to look at Matt before smiling, "what do you think Matt? Wanna help us build a tree house in summer?"

"Will Mello be helping?"

"Of course, I don't think I could get him to not."  
Matt laughed a bit as she scooped him up again, dropping him onto the bed before sliding in beside him. "

Okay mister, before you go to sleep, I wanna see a smile."  
Wide green eyes turned to her before Matt offered up a watery smile, nervously and obviously put on. Not happy enough at the expression, Faith began tickling his sides, muttering that she wanted to see a real smile until he began laughing.

"There we are! See. You'll love it here Matt, you're one of us now, and we look after our own, okay?" Leaning down on one arm and looping her other across Matt's stomach, Faith waited, watching as the boy's eyes began to slowly slide shut and he dropped off into dreamland.

.

After a hour of napping, Faith forced herself to get up and out of bed when she spotted a figure at her door with dark black hair stuck up at all ends. There were deep bags beneath the eyes and a white shirt; it was Elliot.  
Waving him into the room with the beckoning of her hand, Faith dropped onto her window seat, staring at the sleeping Matt. Elliot made his way in, bare feet silent across the thick carpet of her floor before he took up the place beside her, perched on the edge in that odd crouch of his.  
Pulling out the remaining cookies that Mello and Matt hadn't eaten, she offered them up, releasing the packet when he tried pulling it out of her grasp.

"Have you got any leads yet?"

"Two," Elliot knew what case she was talking about clearly, his dark coal eyes upon Matt's sleeping form too.

"How long till the bastard's behind bars."  
If Elliot was shocked at her language, he didn't show it, instead, nibbling upon the edge of a cookie as he thought.

"With the cases I have on the side? Three day's, maximum."

"And if I were to offer two strawberry cakes?"  
He blinked, neck snapping upwards out of it's hunched over position and head angled to stare at her.

"Are you attempting to bribe me with cake?"

"Is it working?"  
The two stared at one another, Faith's face saddening hopeful and Elliot's as blank as a fresh sheet of paper. Finally, he sighed, getting to his feet before offering up the empty packet of cookies. One foot scratched at the other, teeth teasing lower lip and one hand brushing hair back from his face.

"I would like my cake's by tomorrow evening Faith-san."

As L's successor turned on his feet, heading for the door, Faith finally found herself smiling, dropping the empty packet into the waste-bucket by her seat and making her way back over to her bed.

"Thanks for caring Elliot."  
He stopped at the door, not looking back at her but obviously conflicted on whether or not he should say whatever it was he'd thought up.

As Faith was sliding into bed, the raven pocketed his hands, scratching at the back of his head before reaching over to close the door, his voice a whisper, "I don't like those kind of people either."

* * *

When Faith woke up the next morning, it was to the sight of a sheet resting upon the floor behind her door, an obvious print out that'd been slipped under the crack of the door. Picking it up and seeing that one 'Preston Walter' had been arrested for suspected possession of illegal drugs, child abuse and murder. If found guilty, his sentence would without a doubt be life in prison with no parole.  
Suddenly, Faith found an over powering urge to go and bake cakes.

Many, many, strawberry flavoured cakes.

* * *

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.  
-Nelson Mandela

* * *

**Gah, insanely long chapter is insanely long. Like, 5900+ long. That's almost 6000 words. I think that's a record for me to be honest. I have stories shorter than this.  
By the way, the clothing sizes are English, so yeah.**

**Anyway, it's Matt! Adorable, cute little Matt. God I wanna hug him so bad. I just sat down today and was struck by inspiration, and cracked this entire chapter out like BAM! Fear me and my quick writing skills!  
I'm joking, I'm sorry about how horribly long this took. But it's here now, so please forgive me. **

**Thank you for the reviews, I'd mightily appreciate another batch? If you favourite, you get the muffin with the most chocolate chips, if you review, you get a chibi Matt. Maybe.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	7. Victorious Cake

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 7**  
**Victorious Cakes**

**October 18th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Matt: Four years and eight months (February 1st 1992)_

_Beyond; Fifteen years and six months (March 21st 1982)_

* * *

It was in the dark light of early morning that Faith found herself being slowly brought back to the conscious, waking world. Brushing the wild strands of hair back from her face, the teen blinked drowsily, pawing at the sleep within her eyes and attempting to focus on the external source that'd awoken her.  
It was but mere seconds later that that scent of sugared cakes and tea visited her nostrils and Faith groaned, pressing her palm into Elliot's cheek and pushing him back and away from her bed. Some ludicrous ramblings left her mouth, making no comprehensible sense as her words slurred into one another. The only clear sign she'd finished talking was when her mouth snapped shut, and even then it wasn't by any choice of her own. Elliot had reached over, slowly pushing her chin up till her teeth gently met, lips finally sealed shut.  
Staring quizzically at the presence of the unsociable raven, Faith shuffled back ever so slightly, patting at the mattress and inviting him to join her upon it. Since that day with Matt the detective hadn't sought her out, she had brought the cakes to him, but had no other interaction with him. Her eyes slowly slid over to the vintage clock sat upon her bedside table, bright within the nights darkness from an internal light that Daze had crafted into it previously.

"It's two thirty four in the morning Elliot."  
He stared back at her from the shadows, coal eyes black against the white of his skin. His face showed no emotions, as if she had told him it was carrot soup for dinner later that day.

"I am aware of the time Faith-san."

"I don't think you understood the implications of that sentence Elliot, it is two thirty four in the morning. What in the name of cake are you waking me up for at this time in the morning?"  
Face brightening with understanding as her word came into context, Elliot crawled upon her mattress, curling over into his favoured hunched position, one hand playing with the loose thread of his shirt-sleeve.

"Previously, you made it known that you wished to join in on the travel to South-Africa for the Burgundy case if it were required. I am pleased to tell you it will not be necessary, as I completed it not half an hour ago."

.

Eyebrows drawn together, Faith forced her eyelids to part from one another, staring at Elliot's face and plastering her best 'why would I care' face upon her features. However, the need to be polite overrode the snarky remarked that' been forming in the back of her mind, so the brunette settled upon simply patting at Elliot's shoulder in long, half-hearted motions. The frame beneath the white shirt was all coiled muscle and bones, and she wasn't quite sure what surprised her more; the lack of fat or the obvious fact Elliot had some way of keeping in shape enough that he had muscles.

"That's great Elliot, but it could have waited till morning. I'm gonna crawl back into bed now, m'okay?" She was sure more words had left her mouth than that, but those were the only ones that could be interoperated into true human communication.

.

Somehow, she managed to get halfway between burying her head into the nest of her blankets before Elliot spoke again, ripping the covers away from her in the process, with a move that was much too quick, and too jerky for her sleep-riddled brain to catch.

"Actually, I was hoping that you would offer up your presence for a few mere minutes to indulge in eating of a victorious cake with me."  
Muscles moving against her will, Faith found herself sitting up, looking at the cake-loving insomnia beside her with her eyes narrowed in confusion.

"You woke me up at dead'o'clock to eat cake with you?"

"Truthfully, I woke you in order to see if you were hiding a cake anywhere within your room; the common room fridge is empty and our dear handlers informed me it is impolite to go searching through another's room without permission." His head was now turned out a side, angled to look back at her with a light smile and wide, much too awake eyes.  
Groaning, Faith forcefully uncurled her body, tumbling to her feet and making her way over to the wardrobe pushed up against the wall. Pulling back the wooden door, she bent down, now level with the mini-fridge. It wasn't quite Narnia, but just as cold.

"I haven't got cake, so profiteroles will have to do I'm afraid." Pulling the dish in question from the depths of cold storage, Faith slammed both doors shut, running her free hand through the tangles of hair atop her head. Already Elliot was armed with a fork, eyes trained upon the dish and the brunette rolled her eyes, forcing down the yawn that threatened to escape her lips.

"So, I this is definitely in my top three weird moments I've ever eaten dessert."

"Hum?" Already chomping through his second, chocolate drowned pastry, Elliot looked up at her with rounded, questioning eyes, chewing thoughtfully upon his mouthful.

"I think it's the first time you've ever sought my company of your own accord. Even if it was for cake. And I didn't deliver."

"Yes, but I suppose these profiteroles are an ample substitution. You shared a distinguishing interest upon the case I was working on, so it felt it right to inform you of it's completion," Elliot cut off his musing by stuffing two profiteroles into his cheeks, resembling a rodent with his large eyes and now puffy cheeks. Smirking, Faith gently nudge him in the arm, but he didn't fall from his crouch like she was expecting as a result of the slight jostle. Instead, Elliot just scooped up another twin set of the treats, leaving a very small handful in the bottom of the bowl.

"Hey, slow down! One at a time or you're gonna get more than me."

"That is the point Faith-san."

.

Both paused, eyeing one another up before slowly dropping their gaze to the bowl. A single profiterole rested there, and Faith raised a brow.

Instantly, there was a collective scramble of limbs, grasping for the bowl and it's contents. A loud thud echoed though the room as they dropped onto the floor, a mess of limbs, but ultimately, Elliot was victorious, if a little bruised.  
Releasing her grip on Elliot's ankle and honestly, not too bothered about his stealing of the last profiterole, Faith dusted down her sleeping garments, attempting to brush away the chocolate stain and scowling when it remained in place, if a little lighter.

"Well, that was fun. Now if that's all, I can get some sleep, right?" Faith didn't wait for an answer, instead dropping face down onto her mattress, forgoing the covers in favour of placing her trust in Wammy's central heating.

"Of course Faith-san. I shall perhaps see you in morning."  
The door creaked shut and behind her arm, Faith smiled.  
Because Elliot would definitely turn up if she was baking cake.

* * *

Waking up five hours later, at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning was not how Faith wasn't to restart her day. She also didn't really want to start it with a pair of freezing cold feet upon her almost bare thighs.  
Scowling and drawing back from the cold, Faith let one eye slip open, analysing the invader. Matt was curled up against her torso, head resting upon her arm and red hair a devilish mess. At long last the god awful bruise had gone down, leaving his cute little face a weapon for mass manipulation. Seriously, once he figured out the puppy eyes trick, there would be no stopping this kid.

"Matt sweetie, wake up."  
There was a low groan, not unlike a drowsy bear cub as the red head awoke, rolling over to look up at her with bright green eyes.

"Faith?"

"Yeah squirt. What're you do in my bed?"

"I had a nightmare."  
Drawing the boy into her arms and then pulling him up onto her lap, Faith buried her face into the head of fluffy red hair, eyes fluttering close. Maybe a few more minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt?

"Faith?! I want breakfast!"  
On cue, Mello came bouncing into the room, throwing himself upon the bed before drawing his hand across her cheeks.

"You're covered in chocolate," a dreamy murmur left Mello's mouth as he sucked the half melted sweet from his finger, all but sighing in happiness. "I thought we weren't allowed chocolate after bed-time?"

"You're not."

.

Shuffling from foot to foot and flipping the pancakes as she went, Faith took in the break-fast table out of the corner of her eye. Most of the other orphans had decided to lay in -something she herself would be doing if it wasn't for the little rascals before her- but of course, that luxury was just out of reach today. Sat upon one stool, complete with booster cushion, Matt was idly drawing upon a piece of paper with a bright red crayon, humming along to what sounded an awful lot like the pokèmon theme tune. Every so often, he'd send a curious glance at whatever Mello was drawing, before returning to his work, little left hand curled around his colouring utensil and scribbling away to his hearts content.  
As opposed to the two boy's creating, Near was sat opposite the two of them on the table, propped up on a twin set of pillows and pouring over some sci-fi book that he was holding protectively in his tiny clutches. It'd seem something had finally been able to pull his attention from the joys of robots and the rest of his assortment of toys. Though Mello was shooting him an occasional, disbelieving glance, hand twitching, as if wishing to throw the black marker at the boy.  
Rolling her eyes, Faith plucked up the plate of pan-cakes, dropping them in front of each orphan and watching in amusement as they compared one another's pancake's.

"Near's pancake's are bigger than mine!"  
Of course, it was Mello to hiss, looking for support from Matt. Perhaps not so shockingly, the red-head had no idea what Mello was asking of him, so instead went amount slathering his breakfast in an unhealthy amount of lemon juice. It was a wonder the pancake hadn't sunk by the time he'd finished. Near had just taken to eating his raw, unsurprisingly enough, whilst Mello -after being sated with 'the pan made all the pancakes the same size, don't be silly'- was unloading half the bottle of chocolate spread onto his helping.

"Will any of you be wanting more?"  
Mello and, after a few hesitant seconds, Matt nodded, still stuffing their rolled up batter into their mouths.

.

Unsurprisingly enough, when she was halfway through the next batch, the door was flung open, one moppy haired teen casually making his way in. Both Mello and Matt paused in their eating contest, staring up in something akin to horrified curiosity at the next orphan to join the breakfast club.

"Good morning Faith-san," the smooth vocals of Beyond all but floated through the air towards her and Faith smiled, placing one hand upon her hip whilst the other flipped the pancake within her grasp.

"Good morning to you too. Haven't seen you in a while. What brings you down here?"  
After a trip to the fridge, Beyond brushed his hair back from his eyes, instead, sweeping it across his forehead as he slid into a seat.

"Why, your delicious cooking of course." Out of nowhere, he produced a glass jar of strawberry jam, Mello snorting at the magic/distraction technique.

"You want some pancake's too huh?"

"If' you'd be so kind."  
Turning back to the stove, Faith allowed her ears to focus in the conversation across the table, away from the sizzle of the batter against the pan.

"So, you're the one that took Faith ice-skating?" The suspicious voice of Mello reached her ears first and the brunette chuckled ever so slightly under her breath.

"Indeed I did."  
There was a large gap of silence, in which Faith found she'd managed to make six pancakes, two for herself and Beyond, and another one each for Mello and Matt.

"So, are you taking part in the annual track contest?" Beyond twirled his pancake up before messily dipping it into the jam jar, sticking the whole thing into his mouth like a deformed cigar.

"Track contest? I don't know if you've noticed Beyond, but I'm on the opposite end of the health spectrum." Gesturing to the sugar now coating her pancake, Faith took a chomping bite, trying to ignore the way both Matt and Mello were copying Beyond's eating habits.

"It's not physical exercise, god no. Wammy's annual track event consists of anyone willing and over the age of ten teaming up, often in pairs -though there is the odd group of three- and then taking off around the globe. Whosoever is still at Wammy's then tracks them down. You manage a week without being found, you win a prize." Looking mournfully at his now pancake-less plate, Beyond resolved his problem by simply jamming his hand into the jar, scooping out the remaining contents and licking it from his fingers.

"Erm, what?"

"Yep. I always seek though, more fun. But I bet you'd be pretty good at hiding. So far, between Alternate and me, oh, and that Elliot kid, no ones ever managed a week. I think four days was the best bet."  
Stacking up the plates of all the boy's around her, Faith dropped her head onto her hand, raising a brow.

"Okay, how to I sign up?"

* * *

There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast  
-Henry David Thoreau

* * *

**Okay, quicker update, less words. The next one will be much longer, I promise.  
****Anyway, I always wondered how Wammy's trained their kids to hide like L. Here is my solution. I'd like to do something like it, so hey-ho. And L has no idea on the whole 'this is the time I have between me as sleep, so suck it' thing. Yep.**

**Who should Faith team with? Beyond, L or others?**

**In other news, I finally got a cover for this drawn up. It's Faith piggy-backing Mello if you can't tell. It was suppose to be Matt, but I switched off drawing and the second I come to there's a Mello on my screen. Damn him and his cuteness.**

**Thank you for the reviews, I'd mightily appreciate another batch? If you favourite, you get some pancakes, if you review, you get a chibi Beyond. Maybe.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


	8. Hunting Season

**I'm Yours**

**Chapter 8**  
**Hunting Season**

**October 27th 1997**

_Faith: Fourteen years and ten months (December 23rd 1982)_

_L: Fourteen years and eleven months (October 31st 1982)_

_Mello: Four years and ten months (December 13th 1992)_

_Near: Three years and two months (August 24th 1994)_

_Matt: Four years and eight months (February 1st 1992)_

_Kara: Ten years and four months (May 18th 1987)_

_Beyond; Fifteen years and seven months (March 21st 1982)_

_Alternate; Fifteen years and nine months (December 31st 1981)_

_Cathy: Fifteen years and nine months (Janurary 2nd 1982)_

_Daze; Sixteen and one month (September 6th 1981)_

* * *

This is absolutely genius. I know you probably already know that, but it really is." Looking over at the boy off to the side, Faith smiled her best, sheepishly coy smile, eyebrows wiggling about as she did so. From where he was crouched off to the side, Elliot didn't even look up from the luminous screen of his laptop, instead turning his gaze towards the cake waiting upon the side table.

"Yes, I most certainly do know that this plan is genius Faith-san, for that is exactly what I intended it to be. Anything below the level of genius intellect means that I certainly wouldn't belong within the walls of Wammy's."

Huffing, Faith dropped down onto the couch next to him, absentmindedly offering up the bowl of strawberries she was currently picking from. As Elliot began plucking up his share -and a little bit more of course- Faith peered over his arm, taking a peek at his current case.

"Well it's a genius of a plan amongst genius plans then. So blinding simple, but truly awesome anyway," Faith trailed off, brushing her fringe back from her face as she became aware her bowl of fresh fruit was now fresh out. Glaring at the raven haired boy who'd piled up all of her strawberries onto his plate, Faith snatched one back, popping it into her mouth before he could do anything about it.

"I find your company vexing at present Faith-san."

"Yeah well, that makes two of us then."

* * *

**October 25th 1997**

"Sorry to ruin your little hunt here, but no matter how cold it seems, Narnia isn't in the back of the fridge."

Elliot's head snapped back from where he was half buried in the fridge, wide black eyes turning to observe his observer. Mello stared back at him, chocolate bar clenched in one hand and a square hanging from the corner of his mouth. Stood beside her blond charge, Faith offered up a little smile, shuffling about the Matt that was resting in her arms. The red-head was staring at Elliot like one would stare at an exotic bird; nothing dangerous but something certainly fascinating. It took a moment for Faith to realise that this was quite possibly Matt's first time meeting Elliot; he'd been asleep when the raven haired teen had last dropped in on them.

"Matt, meet Elliot; he's kind of a big shot around here, though his manners? No existent."  
Mello snorted with a suppressed laugh, Matt giggling into the soft skin of her shoulder.

.

Adjusting her grip on the red headed toddler, Faith took in the pale, empty hands that were currently hanging by Elliot's side, realizing his problem.

"The cupboard above your head, next to the fridge? Daze install a refrigerator unit, so I can stash the chocolate's without Mello getting his hands on them."  
The blond scowled, folding his arms across his chest, muttering under his breath he'd find a way to get into it.  
Throwing her key towards the dark haired boy, Faith didn't miss how he pressed the metal into a a small, plush looking surface that he'd pulled from his pocket, leaving an indent in it. Of course; he was going to get his own key made. Rolling her eyes but deciding to let it slide for now, Faith settled Matt onto the floor, joining the raven haired teen who was currently routing through the items, trying to decided between the chocolate éclairs and the chunky cookies. In the end, he took both, retreating to the table where his laptop was set up. All the other orphans were off somewhere, doing whatever they did in her spare time.

.

Seating herself next to Elliot and slipping one of his cookies to Mello on the sly, Faith looked over at the teen detective and offered up her most charming smile. Clearly it wasn't working, because he just gave her a look of disapproval before turning back to his screen.

"So, what you working on this time?"

"A small case in the north of Scotland that has potential to expand into something much too big. I'm going to shut them down before they can do anymore damage." His fingers were dashing across the keyboard, typing in codes into his screen and Faith nodded, doing her best to keep up.

"And you're doing what?"

"Shutting down all of their computers; this gang ruin CCTV camera's, so that when they commit their killings, there is no physical proof that they were behind the slaughter."

"Okay, cool. That's pretty ace."  
Nodding, Elliot lifted an éclair to his mouth, before pushing the entire thing past his lips, disappearing towards the black hole that was his stomach. Faith stared, mouth hanging open in a small 'o' of amazement.

"Why is it that you are enquiring about my work?"

"Because we're friends, we take in interest in what one another does."  
Frowning, Elliot scratched lazily at one foot with the other, still crouched forwards on the edge of his chair.

"But I do not take an interest in what you do Faith-san."

"Erm, yeah, you do. Because you're currently eating what I make, thus taking a interest."  
Elliot put the éclair down much like one would a hot potato, not wanting to give it up but pulling a face that suggested the pastry was physically burning his fingers. He stared at it for a while, with large, owlish eyes before a sigh passed through his teeth, and he picked the treat back up again.

"Then I suppose we are friends Faith-san."

"I was hoping you'd say that, because I have something to ask you..."

* * *

**October 27th 1997**

All in all, it'd been an effective trap. Corner Elliot, get him to admit some form of friendship, then offer up desserts on order for a limited time only. All he had to do was move his base of operations, and find a suitable place for the two of them to hide throughout the time of this Wammy house's challenge. And his plan had been rather ingenious; no surprises there then. Having bought multiple plane tickets, messed with several CCTV recording equipment and paid off several local taxi drivers, both Faith and Elliot were hidden underground in there chosen location. It would only be an hour before the Wammy's orphans that'd remained on grounds began tracking them down. Mello would probably be joining them, she knew he was always chomping at the bite when it came to a challenge.

.

Adjusting the grip on the plate she was holding, Faith made her way over to Elliot, who was once again crouched over the coffee table, scribbling away on reports, laptop just in front of him. The plush, pink and white striped chair he sat in was something he'd had brought to their location; if he was going into hiding, it would be with maximum comfort.

"I can't believe you've never hidden away before; why not?" Placing the -whole- chocolate cake in front of her partner in hiding, Faith dropped into the bean bag beside the table, stretching out her back, the button of her jeans pressing uncomfortably into her small stomach. She'd never be model skinny, but ho well. No loss there; she'd leave that all to Cathy. Scratching at her cheek and raising a brown brow when she got no answer, Faith coiled her hands together in her lap. "Well?"

"I have never had time before, it seemed insignificant as they would never have been able to track me."

"That's big words for someone who'd never done this before." The dark gaze that landed on her form made Faith feel like a misbehaving solider in the presence of Winston Churchill. He seemed to know he was giving off the effect too, because Elliot smiled a cute little smile, more to himself than at her, before chopping at his cake with a knife. Having cut himself a large portion of cake, he turned back to the laptop, and Faith frowned at the dismissal.

"Would you have thought to look here Faith-san? With all the false trails I've left?"  
Begrudgingly, the Italian shook her head, sighing.

"You're right," she grumbling an '_as usual_' under her breath, looking away with a pout, "but still, I'm certainly not on the top half of Wammy's intelligence rankings. Are you sure you're not underestimating them?"

"I am positive Faith-san, I know both the strong and weak points of each and every orphan, I highly doubt they will be able to even find a small lead, let alone locate the two of us."

"Why do you know everyone's weak points?"  
But Elliot's face was blank again, looking over his papers.

.

Grimacing, Faith laid out on her bean bag again, rolling her shoulders. The watch upon her wrist was seven minutes from midnight.  
Seven minutes until the beginning of Wammy's House hunting season.

* * *

Stumbling into the kitchen, Beyond rubbed tiredly at his eyes. He'd previously just spent a few minutes staring at the deserted state of Faith-san's bedroom until Mello, along with the little red head that followed him everywhere, informed him that the girl had chosen to take part in the chase.  
Now, he found himself sat in the common room, a place he actively avoided, alongside the other orphans, people he actively avoided, participating in a group event, something he of course, actively avoided.

.

Upon her entry, a girl with startling red highlights in her blonde hair almost tripped over at the sight of him. After a brief moment of rooting through his early memories, Beyond recalled her face and name.  
Cathy had been brought into Wammy's only a month after he himself had been rounded up. He could remember witnessing her first day within the orphanage walls, during a time that he didn't hide himself away in his room, when there were as many orphans as there were fingers on his hand. Back then, she hadn't been the rather attractive blonde she was now, instead in his minds eye Beyond saw a fragile looking ginger haired child, who was covered in grim and soot. This grown version of the flame haired girl smiled at him, offering up a timid wave to which Beyond nodded his head. He himself had changed little, other than growing much taller, and his voice had probably deepened from the child-like high it'd once been. Though he wouldn't know himself; within the safety of his skull, his voice was his. It'd evolved alongside him, and thus there were no huge changes that he could detect.

.

Turning back to the computer that was sat upon the table in front of him, Beyond adjusted the jam jars that were lined up alongside the computer, smiling to himself as he did so.

"So, are you gonna find Faith?" Peering over the arm of the chair was the blond hellion that followed Faith around, a chocolate bar clenched within his fist.

"Yes, I will probably be able to locate her."

"Even if she's teamed up with Elliot?"  
Beyond twisted his head around, chewing upon the corner of his lip before a small smile graced his face.

"Well then, that is interesting. I might need a little help if she has a partner too."

* * *

Mello tumbled after the dark haired teen, tripping over his feet while signalling for Matt to join him. The young red head scampered over, fingers still curled around Faith's Game-boy colour, tapping away at the buttons nervously. Mello knew for a fact that the boy's Charizard would be getting no higher a level than what it was now -which was unbelievably level 100- so he wasn't too sure what Matt was up to right now. Maybe collecting the rest of the pokèmon...

Shaking his head to get rid of the useless thoughts, Mello returned his ice blue eyes to Beyond, who was now stood at the top of the stairs. Having automatically followed after him, Mello came to the quick conclusion they were on the third floor, on what must be Beyond's hallway. There were only two occupied rooms, one with a 'B' scratched into the door, and another blank one. Light was brushing out from beneath the door-frame, and as the clock struck midnight, night becoming the early morning of October the 28th, Beyond began rapping his knuckles against the door.  
It took Mello a moment to realize it wasn't just random noise, instead an unsteady beat of knocks, as if a code. It must have showed on his face, because Beyond chuckled at the sight of him, until the opening of the door brought him back into focus.

"Ah, A, you're awake!"  
A blond haired teen was stood at the door, arms folded across his chest and a brow raised. Mello may have been a child, but he was a well informed child. A had been the first one brought to Wammy's, picked for his brain-power and intelligence; paving the way for everyone else. His hair was a much lighter shade of blond than what Mello's was, as if someone had taken both his and Near's hair, stuck it in a blender and mixed till this colour was produced. A wore it slicked back against his skull, with strands flicking up against the back of his neck, but it didn't hang any lower than two inches below his jaw line. He was pale, the same as Beyond, but clearly that was from staying inside all the time when it came to the two of them.

"Beyond?" A turned his head slightly to a side, raising a blond brow before his lime green eyes turned to look at both Mello and Matt.

"He," Mello pointed towards Beyond with one finger, smirking when A's grinned at the gesture, "said we need your help."

"Come on Alternate, you're good with computers, and the guy we're tracking is better at hiding than me."  
Elliot was good, but for Beyond to be so sure that Elliot would beat him? Mello frowned, taking another bite of his chocolate bar and looking up at Alternate. The teen was frowning too, pulling at his bottom lip with his right forefinger and thumb before a sigh escaped his lips.

"Okay, I'll help. So, are we looking for Elliot?"

"Elliot and Faith. She's new."  
Alternate just nodded, pushing the door back and gesturing for the lot of them to make their way inside.

.

Alternate's room was exactly how Mello would picture future Matt's. The red head beside him seemed to agree, because he'd pocketed the game-boy and was now trying to take in everything. There were several computer screens scattered around the room, each hooked up to towers and in various states of coding. Alternate had already retreated to the center of the room, balanced upon a chair on wheels and was now typing away into a keyboard. Beyond let out a low whistle, taking in the displays before grinning.

"Expanded a bit since the last time you let me in, haven't you?"  
The blond just grinned back at him, rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly.

"Just a bit," he mumbled in agreement before he was clicking away on screen. Soon enough, CCTV recordings of the orphanage were visible, and Alternate was rewinding through them.

"Which is Faith? I stopped keeping track of the other orphans when I decided to stay up here."

"That's her," Mello pointed at the screen, where the image of Faith rested, the girl hard at work over the stove. Alternate froze the image, cocking his head to a side before smiling.

"Okay, she's Faith. And she's travelling with Elliot in this Wammy's hunt?"

"Yep," Beyond answered before Mello could, seating himself upon the nearby bed, which clearly didn't seem much use, "I saw them both leaving the other night. Wammy was driving them, so I want to assume it'll be to an airport of something."  
Nodding, Alternate began clicking away, bringing up all the different airports within England before turning to the three other bodies in his room.

"What time did Wammy get back?"

"About three hours later."

"So they could have left in an airport up to an hour and a half away."  
Mello by this point had made his way over, seating himself at the foot of Alternate's chair and staring up at the screen.

"So they could have left from London Heathrow or Gatwick, or by Southampton airport. Either of the three. So, we've just got to check for flights that left between now and back when Wammy dropped them off."

"Then we look for CCTV footage that's been replaced or tampered with, right?" Beyond appeared to have brought a jam jar up with him, because his hands were covered in the sweet red preservative that was crushed berries with sugar.

"Yeah," Alternate turned to look at both Mello and Matt, the former of whom crossed his arms to show he clearly wasn't to be going anywhere, "will you two be staying?"

"Yes."

"Then you can help."

* * *

"Alternate is tracking us."  
Elliot's voice broke through the early morning haze that came with sleep and Faith let out a little groan until her brain caught the words that'd just been spoken.

"Alternate? Who's Alternate?"

"He was the very first orphan brought to Wammy's," Elliot was now typing away on his computer, frowning as he shovelled cake into his mouth, "his intellect is almost on par with mine, and he is excellent when it comes to using computers, this may prove to be a bit of a challenge after all."  
Scowling at the ego that was currently taking up the room, Faith forced herself up and off of the bean bag -it didn't make an excellent bed, but was better than the floor by a long shot- before joining Elliot by the computer.

"Why have I never met him?"

"He's much less social than Beyond."

"Oh joy."

* * *

I have a toughopponent waiting for me, he has a great future  
-Roger Federer

* * *

**Slow update is slow. And short. I'm so very sorry. I decided to split this into two parts, so here's part one of Wammy's chase, the opening sequence. Where do you think Faith and L are hiding?**

**By request of Avis11, here's some Alternate. And as for his appearance, think Tom Hiddleston's Loki hair, but light blond, and whatever face you want. But I was set of having that hair style. So yeah, here you go. **

**Thank you so much for the reviews, please do keep them coming. I got eight for the last chapter, which was ten shades of awesome. More please. **

**Thanks for reading,**

**Tsume  
xxx**


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